No Regret
by Vercingetorix1234
Summary: "My wish is to become closer to Elsa again." But that wish and Elsa's desire to keep her sister safe are not compatible. Modern AU.
1. Mahou Shoujo

A/N: This story takes place before the Rebellion movie chronologically, but later chapters will have spoilers for the Rebellion movie, so make sure you watch that first. If you're confused because the chapter numbering has changed, it's because I combined the previous chapters 1 and 2 into the new chapter 1 and the previous chapters 3 and 4 into the new chapter 2. That's the way I had originally planned the story, but I ended up splitting the chapters up to update faster.

* * *

As soon as she finished eating her cereal, Anna grabbed her backpack and rushed out the door, only stopping for a moment to call goodbye to her mother as she went, and pounded her feet against the pavement as she ran past row after row of the identical houses of suburbia. Finally, she caught up to Elsa and slowed to a walk, panting. The only indication her sister gave that she noticed Anna's arrival was a slight turn of her head as she glanced at Anna, before she looked forward again and avoided Anna's gaze.

Anna frowned slightly before forcing herself to smile again. These walks to the bus stop were some of the only chances she had to talk to her sister, and for that reason it was a bit of a game between them. Elsa would always make sure to leave before her sister so that they couldn't walk together, but she couldn't leave too early or else she would have to spend minutes waiting at the bus stop with Anna. For her part, Anna always did her best to wake up early so that she could leave at the same time as Elsa, even though she wasn't a morning person. Anna had managed to catch up to Elsa this time, and she couldn't waste the chance to attempt a conversation by letting herself get upset.

"So…nice weather we're having." Anna said as though they were having a normal conversation. Elsa would sometimes respond when they had no choice but to be in the same place, so long as the subject matter wasn't too personal.

Elsa gave a barely perceptible nod.

"It's not too bad." Elsa didn't avert her gaze from the fascinating sidewalk in front of her as she responded.

Anna nodded as well, feeling foolish when she remembered that Elsa wasn't looking. It was sad, really, that she actually felt like she'd accomplished something by getting that response. She and Elsa had been very close when they were children, but something changed. Elsa stopped playing with Anna, wouldn't let Anna into her room, and would avoid talking to her whenever possible. Until high school, Elsa had been homeschooled and Anna hadn't even been able to walk with her to the bus stop. But Elsa's frigidity had almost become worse, if that was possible, when their father died in a car accident three months before.

"That's good. How are your classes going?" Anna asked, wishing she had something better to talk about, but the truth was that she barely knew anything about her sister anymore.

"They're alright."

Anna snorted.

"Please. That won't work on me. I know you get straight As in everything."

Elsa looked down, but was unable to hide a small smile, and Anna smiled in turn. But by then they'd reached the bus stop at the street corner and the school bus was waiting with its doors open. Elsa didn't spare her sister a glance as she strode forward and sat in a two-seater in the back next to some stranger. There were no empty seats nearby. Anna ended up sitting in a three-seater in the front of the bus, alone. She held back a sigh as she stared out the window, the all-too-familiar scenery tinted grey by the glass as it whirled past. How long was her life going to be like this?

* * *

Anna slept through most of her morning classes and her legs guided her to the cafeteria, still only half-awake. She sat at her usual table with some other girls from her homeroom. She listened in on their conversation from time to time, but didn't contribute. They tolerated her presence, but never engaged her in conversation or seemed interested in anything she had to say. Even Anna's usual upbeat cheerfulness died in the face of utter apathy.

Still, it was better than nothing. It was the best she'd been able to do when they'd been forced to move right after their father died three months ago. They couldn't afford to keep the house on just their mother's income, and for some reason their mother seemed to think that moving out of the city would be a good idea. But at the new school, Anna had been so focused on grieving that she hadn't realized that she hadn't made any friends until it was too late.

As Anna munched on her banana and Nutella sandwich, she glanced across the cafeteria towards Elsa, who was sitting alone. Anna would rather be eating her lunch with her sister, but experience had taught her that if she tried, Elsa would find another table or, if there weren't any, simply leave the cafeteria.

Her sister was eating her own banana and Nutella sandwich, but even then she hadn't taken her gloves off. Anna could never have managed to do that without getting the gloves messy, but Elsa did it every day. The gloves were yet another mystery to Anna, but she was used to the curiosity by now, though it still gnawed at her. It had only been by observation that she'd even found out that Elsa also liked chocolate.

It was then that Anna heard a voice. It cut through the bustle of the cafeteria, resonating in her mind rather than her ears.

_If there's something you want, I can give it to you. All you need to do is make a contract with me and become a magical girl!_

Anna looked around for the source of the voice and nearly jumped out of her seat when she saw a strange creature on the table in front of her. It was like some kind of cross between a cat and rabbit, white with long ears, a fluffy tail, red eyes, and floating golden rings on its ears. Anna glanced at the rest of the girls at her table, but none of them seemed to notice it.

_What is that thing? And why can't anyone else seem to see it?_ Anna thought. She nearly jumped again when the answer sounded in her head.

_My name is Kyubey. I help girls with potential like you become magical girls. Only magical girls and girls with potential can see me._ Kyubey didn't blink as he stared at her. Anna took a deep breath to calm herself down and faced him.

_How can you hear my thoughts?_ Anna shifted in her seat, still unnerved by how no one else seemed to notice Kyubey.

_Don't worry, I can only hear thoughts that you direct at me. Now, do you want to become a magical girl?_

_What do you mean by magical girl?_

_Magical girls use their magic to fight wraiths and protect people. If you make a contract with me, you can become one, and in return you can have any one wish granted._ Kyubey's tail swished back and forth.

Anna tilted her head, curious. It was completely ridiculous, but if there was a chance…

_You can grant any wish?_

_That's right._

Anna's brow furrowed as she thought. She didn't know what she'd be getting herself into by making this contract, but it was tempting. She needed to think about it some more. One of Kyubey's ears turned, as though he was hearing something.

_There's no time. A group of wraiths is about to attack the school! Follow me!_ Kyubey jumped off the desk and ran towards the door, pausing to stare back at Anna before exiting.

_Wait! _

Anna got up and ran after him, drawing a few stares as she did. She didn't know what these wraiths were, but if they were dangerous and she could do something about them, then she had no choice but to follow Kyubey.

* * *

"Are those wraiths?"Anna asked, looking down at Kyubey.

At the bottom of the hill on the edge of the school grounds, fog was expanding, and within it were flickering, faceless, robed figures.

_Yes. They're born from people's negative feelings. If they're not stopped, they'll attack the school and many students could die._ Kyubey gazed into Anna's eyes. She shivered. _Anna, I don't know if any of the other magical girls in this area will be able to make it in time. If you contract with me, you can make a wish and save them._

Anna slowly nodded.

"Okay, I'll do it." Anna took a deep breath to steady her voice. She'd wanted more time to think, but the wish itself was obvious to her. It was the same thing she'd wished for all of these years, and now she finally had a chance of getting it. "My wish is to become closer to Elsa again."

_Wish granted. Your soul has successfully reduced net entropy_.

But Anna didn't hear anything. An intense pain clawed at her entire body, as though every nerve was on fire. But it only lasted for a few moments, and when she opened her eyes, an egg-shaped object shining with lavender light floated in front of her.

_That's your soul gem. Use that to transform into a magical girl and defeat the wraiths!_

Anna grabbed the soul gem, and when she did, she knew exactly how to activate it, as though by instinct. She held it out in front of her and it glowed. With a flash of light, Anna's clothes were replaced by a green dress with a lavender cloak. Her soul gem transformed into a lavender diamond set in a gold armband on her left arm. A spear appeared in her hand, its tip gleaming with sharpness. Anna hesitated, eying her spear warily. It was surprisingly light in her hand despite its obvious weight and size, but she didn't know if she would be able to use it.

_Go on. All magical girls know how to use their abilities by instinct. Anyway, you just need to hold them off until another magical girl gets here._

_Okay, here I go!_

Anna ran forward, tripping and rolling down the hill as she took off much faster than she expected. She got up, slightly winded, but wasn't hurt or even bruised. "Ouch!"

_You're much stronger and faster now that you're a magical girl. Try to get used to it quickly._

Anna nodded and moved forward again, this time at what felt like a slow jog. Still, the distance between her and the wraiths disappeared faster than she expected and all too soon one was towering over her. Anna thrust her spear forward, surprised at how naturally it came to her as the spear pierced through the wraith's body. It shuddered and sparks ran along its sides before it disappeared with a puff of wind, leaving a small, black cube on the ground in its place.

_That's one down_. Anna thought, but now the rest of the wraiths were turning towards her, their faces twisting into menacing smiles.

Suddenly, thin, white beams of light shot from the places where their eyes should have been towards her. Anna jumped to the side, crashing into the hill as she once again used too much strength. Anna picked herself up and the next few minutes passed in a blur as she dodged beam after beam of light. She didn't have time to breathe, or even think, only to move on instinct as she sensed each attack coming.

Then a series of beams converged on her from all sides, blinding her. There was nowhere to go. If only Anna could reach the top of the hill somehow…When she opened her eyes, she was at the top of the hill, and the wraiths were still at the bottom, circling as though searching for her.

_I can teleport?_ She asked Kyubey, who was sitting a safe distance away from the battlefield.

_I wouldn't know. Each magical girl's abilities are unique to them. Try to sense your capabilities._

Anna did so, and was surprised by the depth of the information that she knew. She could sense precisely how far she could teleport each time. It wasn't far enough for travel, but it was good enough for combat. Anna smiled.

_Alright! I can do this!_

Anna teleported to the bottom of the hill, right above one of the wraiths, which she promptly speared. The rest of the wraiths turned on her and she teleported away again. She tried the same trick again, but now the wraiths seemed to have wised up somewhat. Only a few of them attacked her while she was further away to force her to teleport, and the rest waited until she teleported close by before attacking. Anna was forced to teleport again and again, spending only enough time to impale a wraith before jumping away again. But the next time she tried, she moved too slowly, barely dodging a streamer of light. She was only able to muffle her scream as the streamer cut into her right arm below her elbow.

Anna teleported back to the top of the hill and collapsed to her knees. She reached for the wound on her arm, but stopped before touching it. There was blood dripping from it, too much to tell how severe it was, though the pain had subsided a bit. Anna panted, but she didn't feel out of breath, exactly. It was more like each teleport took a toll on her, and she felt the strain somewhere. She glanced at her armband. Her soul gem, which had been bright before, was now a cloudy, dark lavender.

_Try not to overuse your magic. Your supply is limited, so you can't just keep teleporting over and over again._

Anna looked down at the bottom of the hill, where half a dozen wraiths still remained.

_I don't know if I can beat them_. Anna said, her heart sinking as it finally occurred to her what failure would mean. Those wraiths would attack the school, and Elsa was there too. Kyubey just licked his paw nonchalantly.

_Don't worry. Another magical girl will be here in just a moment._

_What? Who-_

Anna stopped as bright flashes of light appeared in the corner of her eye. Another girl was fighting the demons. She had short, auburn hair and wore a silver and black dress with gold trim. She moved quickly, jumping and spinning gracefully to dodge the wraiths' attacks in stark contrast to the deadly swipes of her enormous scythe, which ripped through one wraith after the other. In just seconds, all of them were gone and bits of the fog curled away and dissipated until there was nothing was left of the wraiths except those black cubes. The girl flicked the scythe, which vanished, and turned towards Anna and waved at her. Anna waved back and teleported next to her.

* * *

"That was amazing!" Anna said as soon as she appeared. The girl shrugged, seemingly unfazed by the teleportation.

"No big deal. Killing wraiths is what magical girls do." She smiled at Anna. "Nice to see a new girl around here. I could definitely use the help, especially from one with teleportation. You must be pretty powerful." Anna blushed at the praise.

"No, I'm not that good. I barely knew what I was doing."

"In that case, how about I show you the ropes? What's your name?"

"I'm Anna. You want to help me? I'd really appreciate it."

"Sure, no problem. My name is Helen, by the way. First lesson of the day: your soul gem, you noticed it getting darker during the battle, right?" Anna glanced at it.

"Well, you can use these," and now Helen was holding up one of the black cubes left behind by the wraiths "to purify it. They're called grief cubes. Make sure you don't run out of magic. If you do, you die."

Anna stiffened, realizing how close she'd come to death already, and nodded.

"Good. Hold them close to your soul gem." Helen handed her a few more of the grief cubes, which Anna gratefully accepted. She brought them up to her soul gem, and was surprised to see them suck the darkness from it, returning it to previous luster. "Those are about used up now. Why don't you try feeding them to Kyubey?"

"He eats these things?" Anna glanced at Kyubey, who had walked down the hill to join them.

_I don't eat them. I collect them. The concentrated curses play a valuable role in combating entropy._

Helen laughed. "Kyubey never shuts up about entropy. Well, go on, try throwing them at him."

Anna hesitated, then tossed the cubes underhand to Kyubey, who jumped to catch them with his back. They were absorbed into the red oval on his back, which glowed briefly.

There was so much that was strange about what was happening that Anna didn't even know where to begin asking questions. She considered herself to be the kind of person who embraced change and even thrived on it, but she had to admit that this was a bit overwhelming.

Helen seemed to notice, giving her an encouraging smile.

"Hey, don't worry if this is all new to you. Every magical girl has to start somewhere, right? I'll take care of you. You'll be an ace wraith hunter in no time."

Anna felt the corners of her mouth turn up as she thanked Helen. She wasn't used to people trying to make her feel better. Her father had insisted on homeschooling her and Elsa up to eighth grade, and they hadn't had much opportunity to talk to other people their age. Anna had been so excited when she'd first started high school, but their father's death had made it hard to take advantage of it.

Was this what it was like to have a friend?

Helen shifted her gaze to look at something behind Anna. Anna turned around, and was surprised to see yet another magical girl. She had short, blonde pigtails and her costume consisted of a heavy gray and dark blue cloak. She carried an enormous battleax.

"Hey, Kristen. It's good to see you again." Helen said politely. Kristen ignored her, focusing her eyes on Anna.

"A new girl? This area doesn't have enough wraiths to support three of us." Kristen's expression was chilly, but Helen laughed it off.

"You take everything so seriously, Kristen. We'll just travel a bit farther when we hunt. There won't be any problems."

Kristen turned back to Helen, narrowing her eyes.

"What do you want with her anyway?"

Helen crossed her arms and pouted. "I'm just trying to help the new girl out. Why are you always so suspicious of me, anyway?"

"If you say so." Kristen turned around and jogged away.

"What's her problem? Did you kick her puppy or something?" Anna asked, still watching Kristen's back.

"Who knows? She's always sour for some reason. She doesn't seem to like me, no matter how much I try to be nice to her." Helen frowned. She looked a bit dejected, so Anna placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Well, I think you're awesome!" Anna held Helen's gaze, and they exchanged smiles.

* * *

Anna sat on her bed, gritting her teeth as she applied disinfectant to her arm. Helen had said that magical girls healed faster than humans and didn't get sick. Still, Anna couldn't just leave the wound open for anyone to notice, and she didn't want to take any chances with an infection either. She'd have to wear long-sleeved shirts to hide the bandage from now on, as well as for any new wounds she got, which would be a pain since it was starting to get warmer.

"How did you get that?"

Anna jolted, not expecting to hear that voice directed toward her anytime soon, and turned to see Elsa staring at her with wide eyes. Or, to be more accurate, staring at her arm. Anna grimaced. Now that she'd wiped most of the blood away, it was obvious how large and deep the wound was.

"Oh, this? It's nothing, really." Anna turned away, but it was already too late.

"Don't play dumb, Anna. Did you think I wouldn't notice you leaving school early? What's going on?"

Anna twirled her hair nervously. She couldn't tell her the truth. Elsa would think she was crazy. She didn't have any idea what approach to take. It had been years since they'd talked this much. Elsa seemed to take the silence as refusal, narrowing her eyebrows.

"If you don't tell me, I'll tell our mother."

Anna opened her mouth to object, but was cut off by a voice in her head.

_There's no need for that. Anna made a contract with me and became a magical girl. She was wounded while fighting wraiths, the enemies of magical girls. If you want, you can become a magical girl too!_

Elsa gasped as she saw Kyubey sitting on the windowsill.

"What is _that_?" Elsa asked, pointing a trembling finger at him.

There was no choice now. Anna sighed.

"Calm down, Elsa. I'll explain everything."

Anna recounted the events of the day. Despite the situation, she felt surprisingly happy. She was talking to Elsa again, like she used to, and she wasn't being ignored. Her wish was coming true already.

Elsa stood in stunned silence as she took it all in. The only reaction she showed was a slight frown as Anna rushed through an explanation of her wish, embarrassed but not wanting to leave out such an important detail.

"And now I'm a magical girl, Elsa. I can protect people from those wraiths, like I did today. There's no point in telling Mom. There's no way she would believe in magic anyway."

Elsa frowned. "Anna, this isn't one of your stories. Magic is unnatural, and it's not safe. You got hurt today fighting those things, and you could get hurt again. If you won't stop being a magical girl, then you leave me with no choice."

"What gives you the right to tell me what to do? You haven't even had a real conversation with me in years!"

Elsa flinched, but Anna wasn't done, waving her arm angrily. "What have I ever done to you?! I had to make that stupid wish just to get you to talk to me!"

Elsa straightened her back and looked away, her face blank again. "Maybe I can't tell you what to do, but I can still talk to our mother."

_I wouldn't do that if I were you_. Kyubey said, seeming to finally take interest in the conversation again. _Magical girls need grief cubes to survive. If you don't let Anna fight wraiths, she will die._

Elsa's face lost what little color it had.

"See, Elsa? You can't stop me. I'm a magical girl now and there's nothing you can do about it." Anna crossed her arms.

Elsa hugged her arms and turned away, pacing back and forth across the room for a few minutes. Anna stared, unsure of what to do as the clock ticked on. Had she been too harsh? Should she give Elsa a hug? Would Elsa get mad if she did? Finally, Elsa turned back towards her, still not making eye contact.

"Alright. I will let you hunt these wraiths and I won't tell Mom. But you have to take me with you. I will be watching you, so don't think you can sneak off without me. Do you promise?"

Now Elsa looked up, holding her gaze. Her icy stare was unrelenting. Anna nodded.

"Yes. I promise."

_I'm glad you were able to resolve your disagreement. Honestly, you humans can be so unreasonable sometimes. _Kyubey commented, scratching an ear with his paw.

Elsa glared at him. "Don't think I trust you. You didn't tell Anna that she would be forced to fight wraiths as a magical girl, did you? I'll be watching you, so don't try anything. I won't be becoming a magical girl, either, so forget about it."

_Believe it or not, Elsa, I'm not your enemy and I did not mislead Anna. She got her wish, didn't she? It was a fair contract. But I get your point._

"Come on, Elsa, leave Kyubey alone." Anna said. "It was an emergency. Those wraiths were attacking the school, there wasn't enough time to explain everything."

Elsa sighed. "If you say so."

Elsa walked towards the door, then paused, leaning on the doorframe.

"Change the bandages every few days." Elsa said, and then left.

Anna stared at her sister's back as she walked away. She knew that Elsa cared about her at least a little bit, but it didn't make her behavior any less mysterious.

* * *

Later that night, Elsa paced her room, unable to hold her magic back. Frost spread across the walls and her feet crunched as she stepped on snow.

Elsa wrung her hands as she walked. She'd closed herself off for years to protect Anna from her magic, but now Anna had her own brand of dangerous magic. Had it all been for nothing?

The worst part was that Anna had made that wish because of her. In the end, all she could do was put Anna in more danger.

"Dammit!" Elsa collapsed on her bed, unable to hold a sob. She buried her face in her pillow.

She had to keep Anna safe, but she didn't know how; her powers were worse than useless, they were dangerous. Was watching over Anna the best she could do? And even if she did that, her curse would still be a risk. She decided to figure it out the next day, allowing her exhaustion to carry her to sleep.


	2. The Power of Friendship

The next day, Anna woke up earlier than usual and got ready in time to eat breakfast with Elsa and her mother. Elsa frowned slightly as Anna entered the kitchen with Kyubey perched on her shoulder.

"Good morning, Anna." Their mother said, looking up from her nursing magazine and putting down the mug of coffee she'd been holding.

"Good morning."

Anna prepared her bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats and quickly took her seat at the table across from Elsa, not allowing her sister any time to escape. Elsa had said that she would be watching her, so maybe she wouldn't try this time, but Anna didn't want to take any chances. Elsa stared at Kyubey briefly, but returned to eating before their mother could notice.

"How's biology? I hear Rutledge is pretty hard." Anna said in between bites of cereal.

Her mom glanced at Elsa and they exchanged a look.

"It's alright." Elsa finally replied.

This was another thing that bothered Anna. It sometimes seemed like her mother was monitoring her interactions with Elsa. Anna suspected that her parents had something to do with Elsa shutting herself off from other people. That would explain why their dad had insisted on homeschooling them until high school no matter how much Anna begged to be able to go to school with other girls her age. But when Anna had asked about it, her parents just made excuses, or said that they couldn't force Elsa to talk to her.

It didn't really matter. In the end, it was Elsa who chose not to talk to her, even when no one else was there to watch them. But this time, Elsa wouldn't be getting away with it.

_How about you give me a real answer this time?_

From the corner of her eye, Anna could see Elsa stiffen. She smiled slightly, having never stopped eating her cereal. Elsa recovered quickly and continued eating.

_So you really do have magic now. _Elsa's voice sounded in her head. Anna couldn't place the tone. Was it angry, or maybe sad?

_That's not exactly right. _Kyubey jumped off of Anna's shoulder and stretched on the table in front of their unsuspecting mother. _Telepathy isn't one of Anna's powers. I'm acting as a relay. It's quite useful for when magical girls and girls with potential need to communicate. And before you ask, no, I can't read your thoughts unless you're directing them at me or Anna._

_I'm not sure whether I can believe that._ Elsa said. She finished her cereal and got up to put the bowl away.

Anna swallowed the last few bites of her own bowl and slurped the milk down, not noticing the mildly disgusted look her mother gave her as she got up and followed Elsa.

_You can't not to talk to me forever! _Anna huffed.

* * *

But it seemed that Elsa intended to do just that. This time, Elsa didn't leave home before Anna, instead opting to wait by the front door for Anna to leave first. Anna spent ten tense, but still boring, minutes standing across the hall from her. Anna stared at Elsa while her sister took an immense interest in the strap of her backpack, refusing to make eye contact.

_Come on, Elsa, would it really be the end of the world for us to walk together?_

Elsa didn't respond.

Finally, five minutes before the bus was set to arrive at the bus stop, Anna sighed and gave up, walking out the door and along her usual path to the bus stop. After a minute of walking, she glanced behind her, where Elsa was following and maintaining a steady distance. Anna reached up to her shoulder and scratched Kyubey's head.

_Do you have any idea why she doesn't want to talk to me? You _are_ the one who granted my wish._ Anna asked.

_I grant wishes, but the magic comes from the girl. I have no way of knowing. And the fact that you asked for you and your sister to become close rather than be close means that it's impossible to know how long it will take for her to start talking to you. Really, though, why did you word it like that?_

Anna considered the question carefully. It was true that she could have just wished for her and Elsa to instantly be close, though she wasn't sure how a wish like that would have been granted. She shuddered as she imagined her and Elsa's memories being rewritten so that they had never had any problems in the first place. Just how powerful were wishes?

_No, a wish like that wouldn't have been as satisfying._

_If you say so. _Kyubey turned to look into her eyes, and not for the first time, Anna was struck by how strangely dull they seemed despite the otherwise deep, red color. _You aren't the first magical girl to make a noninstantaneous wish, though I never understand why. Humans sure are strange._

Anna chuckled. _Are people really that strange to you? What exactly are you, anyway?_

_I'm Kyubey. My species has always been around, helping magical girls fight wraiths across history. Humans have just never been aware of us._

_Because most people can't see you?_

_That's right._

There was something about the way Kyubey spoke about humans that bothered Anna, but she didn't know what it was. It was just a nameless worry that itched at the back of her head even as she got on the bus and found a seat. Oh well. It was probably nothing. Kyubey had been nothing but helpful to her, after all.

* * *

Anna barely paid any attention at all to her classes. It was impossible to when there were far more important things to think about, such as when she would have to fight wraiths again. Under her desk, she swiveled her soul gem around her finger. It had turned into a silver ring with strange runes engraved in it when she transformed out of her magical girl outfit the previous day.

She was still not paying attention to her surroundings as she walked to lunch, and nearly jumped when she felt a finger tap the shoulder not carrying Kyubey. She whirled to face whoever it was.

"Whoa, it's just me." Helen grinned, holding her hands up. Anna relaxed.

"Ha ha. Sorry, I'm just a little on edge today." Anna said.

"Don't worry about it. It's normal for a new girl to be nervous. Hey, why don't you eat lunch with me today?"

Anna looked up hopefully. Helen's eyes were warm and open. "Is that really okay?"

"Of course it is. We've practically fought together already and we're going to be doing that again soon. We're partners."

Anna couldn't fight the smile that tugged at her lips.

* * *

Elsa munched her sandwich methodically. Normally she took the time to savor it. The banana and Nutella flavor was the highlight of her school day. But today Anna wasn't at her regular seat. Elsa tried not to let her anxiety show as she scanned the cafeteria tables as quickly as she could.

Had Anna already left to fight those wraith things? She'd promised to take Elsa with her. But then again, if Anna had broken that promise, should she really be so surprised? Anna had no reason to honor a promise with a sister like her. Elsa clenched her fist under the table, then relaxed slightly as finally located Anna at a table across the cafeteria.

She was talking to another girl, one with auburn hair. Was that the other magical girl Anna had mentioned yesterday? Elsa didn't know what to think about her. The girl, whose name was Helen, Elsa now recalled, had saved Anna's life. But on the other hand, she still used magic. Her magic was probably not as dangerous to Anna as Elsa's was, but Elsa couldn't know for sure. At least Kyubey was nowhere to be seen.

She frowned. The only way to find out would be to join them, but that would put Anna at risk to her magic. Magic was everywhere, surrounding Anna and threatening her life. Elsa took a few controlled breaths, forcing herself to calm down. She couldn't afford to panic now. What was the best way to keep Anna safe? Was the lesser evil the known danger of her own magic, or the unknown of that girl?

Elsa inspected her gloves, making sure that they were covering her hands completely. She wouldn't make a mistake. She couldn't. She slowly got up from her seat and walked towards her sister.

* * *

"Freezepop is your favorite band too? No way!" Anna said, making Helen laugh, leaning back on the bench precariously and swinging her legs as she did.

This was amazing. Anna had never met someone she had so much in common with. They liked the same music, the same TV shows, and even banana and Nutella sandwiches. Anna didn't think she'd ever laughed this much since her father died.

"So, how did you first become a magical girl?" Anna leaned forward, eager to learn more about Helen.

Helen shrugged. "It was pretty typical. Kyubey just approached me one day and asked me to make a wish. I couldn't refuse, not when I found out that I was one of the only ones who could keep innocent people safe from wraiths."

Anna nodded. "It was exactly the same for me. I couldn't just let those wraiths attack the school. What did you wish for?"

Helen looked down, frowning slightly.

Anna gasped, realizing her error, and waved her hands. "I'm sorry, that was too personal, wasn't it? Forget I said anything."

Helen looked up again and shook her head, smiling wryly.

"No, it's not a big deal. It's just a little embarrassing. You see, my family…" Helen looked at Anna, but her eyes were unfocused, as though seeing straight through her.

"My father owns a pretty large business, you see? I'm the youngest of thirteen children, and the only girl, too. He only cared about his company, and as far as he was considered only my oldest brothers were useful to him. They were the only ones he spent time with and taught to run the business. He barely paid any attention to me, and neither did my brothers. I wished" and here Helen's voice began to crack slightly, "I wished that they would care about me. Pretty stupid, right?"

Anna grabbed Helen's hands and shook her head hard. "No, of course not. That's awful. Not your wish, the way they treated you was awful. No one deserves that."

Helen gave her a weak smile. "Thanks. It's not that bad, really."

Anna didn't let go of her hands, not convinced.

"No, really, I wished for the same thing, pretty much. My sister and I used to be really close when we were little, but one day she just started shutting me out and I still don't know why. I wished that we would become closer again."

Helen squeezed Anna's hands, holding her gaze. "I would never shut you out. Maybe I'm crazy, but I already know we're going to be really great friends."

Helen let go of her hands.

"That's not crazy at all! I think so too." Anna beamed, basking in the moment until she noticed Helen's gaze shifting to something behind her. She turned to see what it was.

There was no doubt about it; Elsa was walking directly towards their table. This had never happened before.

"Is that your sister?" Helen asked, tilting her head.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"She looks a little like you."

Anna was impressed. Usually people were thrown off by their different hair colors.

"Anyway, I'm surprised she's coming here. She usually avoids me at lunch."

Now Elsa was close by, so Anna stopped talking. She walked up to a spot at the table next to Anna.

"Is this seat taken?" Elsa asked.

"No, it isn't." Anna answered quickly. Was Elsa finally ready to talk to her now?

She tried not to feel disappointed when Elsa sat next to Anna, but scooted a little farther away so she was as far apart from Anna as possible while still being within range of conversation. It was still progress.

No one said anything for a few seconds. Anna wanted to, but there was a strange tension in the air as Elsa examined Helen's face.

"So, are you the other magical girl that Anna mentioned?" Elsa asked, her tone even and her face expressionless.

Helen looked to Anna, an eyebrow raised. "You told her about magic? It's not a good idea to get ordinary people involved."

Anna shook her head. "I didn't have a choice. She noticed me leaving early yesterday and she saw my wound. Besides, she can see Kyubey."

Helen's face returned to its usual cheer. "Well, in that case it's fine. Nice to meet you, Elsa. Anna's told me about you."

Helen held a hand out to Elsa, who hesitated, then reached out and shook it. Helen tactfully refrained from saying anything about Elsa's gloves.

"Nice to meet you too. I believe I owe you thanks. Anna told me that you practically saved her life yesterday." Elsa said, her voice still not betraying any emotion.

"No problem." Helen said.

Anna couldn't tell what Elsa thought about Helen. She said she was grateful, but she didn't seem to like Helen, exactly. She supposed it was natural. If Elsa avoided talking to her own sister, why would she be friendly with a stranger?

A few more seconds passed in awkward silence. Elsa stared disinterestedly past Helen. Anna tried desperately to think of something to talk about. This was her chance: Elsa had joined them of her own accord, even if it was just because she was monitoring her. Helen opened her mouth to say something when a thought from Kyubey cut her off.

_I've been watching out for wraith swarms at the edge of your territory like you wanted, Helen. There's one approaching the town hall right now._

_On it_. Helen said, and got up from the table. She looked towards Anna, who got up in a hurry to follow Helen. _Are you ready to go?_

_Yes, I am._

Elsa was already standing. "I will be going with you."

Helen had been about to start walking off, but she turned around quickly, her eyes wide.

"What, you're coming too? You might have potential, but you still can't fight wraiths. It's not safe."

Elsa didn't budge. "I'm coming."

Anna winced. _Sorry, my bad. I promised Elsa that I would let her come along. It was the only way I could convince her not to tell my mother that I was a magical girl._

Helen tilted her head, thinking, then nodded. _Alright, if you're willing to risk it. Just stay back, away from the fighting, okay?_

Elsa gave her a barely perceptible nod.

Helen began walking towards the exit. _Follow me. We'll take my car._

As they walked, Anna glanced at Elsa, whose expression was as blank as ever. When she'd agreed to let Elsa come with her, she had been thinking about her responsibility to protect people as a magical girl. However, Helen had a point; Elsa would be in danger too. Anna shook her head. She wouldn't let anything happen to her sister, no matter what.

* * *

Town hall was a lone, brick building built in the 1920s on the side of a road that didn't see much traffic. Still, there were cars were parked all around it, probably belonging to government workers.

The last time Anna had been there, she'd been accompanying her mother and Elsa. After their father died, their mother wanted to teach Elsa as much as possible about living in the real world, and apparently that included dealing with the paperwork left by their father's death. Anna had watched in silent horror as her mother taught Elsa what to do "in case something happened to me." Anna didn't know how she could talk about it so calmly. She hadn't even wanted to consider losing her mother too. Elsa had been calm too, simply nodding as she learned as much as she could, apparently ready to take on the maternal role in the event of another death. So Anna remembered town hall well, though it wasn't a pleasant memory.

The fog and the wraiths in it were new, however. They inched closer and closer along the road to the building with each passing moment. Anna swallowed when she noticed that were many more wraiths there than the previous day.

Behind her, Elsa gasped quietly as she saw the faceless figures that flickered in and out of sight, but she didn't say anything. Kyubey sat on the ground next to her and swished his tail, content just to observe.

_Crap, they're going to reach the building in a minute or two. Let's go._ Helen held out a white soul gem and changed into her magical girl outfit in a flash of white light. Anna followed her lead.

Elsa's face wore that same strange expression it'd had that morning during breakfast. Anna didn't understand; sure, this was dangerous, but most people would have been awed by that transformation anyway. Anna knew that she'd forgotten the seriousness of the situation while watching Helen.

Anna looked back towards the wraiths. She couldn't let herself be distracted now. People's lives were at stake.

_Do you have a plan?_ Anna asked nervously.

Her first instinct was to jump right into battle, but that hadn't worked out very well the previous day.

_I think I do, actually._ Helen turned to look at her. _Those wraiths are a little too close to the building. I can't use my area attacks without hurting anyone, and I don't think we can beat all of them in close quarters before they reach the building. But your magic is perfect for this. You can lure them away from the building and use your magic to avoid getting hurt. That should give us some breathing room._

"Absolutely not!" Elsa strode forward and placed a hand on Anna's shoulder as though to pull her back.

Anna was startled by the movement, but in her transformed state Elsa might as well have been trying to keep a boulder from rolling downhill.

Elsa took a deep breath and calmed down slightly. "It's too risky. You shouldn't fight separately."

_This plan has a high probability of success._ Kyubey interjected. Elsa glared at him.

Helen hesitated, then nodded. "Okay, we'll come up with something else."

_No, let's go ahead with the plan. _Anna defiantly returned to using telepathy even though she didn't need to. Even Helen had already picked up on Elsa's distaste for it. _We don't have time to come up with something better, and I won't be in danger as long as I don't run out of magic._

Anna teleported away before Elsa could object.

* * *

One second Anna was next to her, and the next she was just gone, leaving no trace that she'd ever been there. Elsa turned quickly and searched near the fog until she spotted Anna at the edge furthest from town hall. Elsa had known about Anna's power, but it was still unnerving to see it in action. Even more unnerving was how quickly the wraiths took notice of Anna and altered their course to surround her. Anna disappeared again and reappeared a few meters further away.

"She's doing well, you know. You don't need to worry about her." Helen said. She had stepped forward next to Elsa, and had mirrored her crossed arms.

Elsa just shook her head and continued watching the battle. It wasn't that she thought Helen was a bad person, exactly. However, Anna's safety was obviously not her first priority.

Perhaps some people would call Elsa selfish, putting Anna's safety before that of the dozens of people who must be in the building. But it was a decision she'd always make.

Anna kept jumping from one position to the next, drawing the wraiths further away each time. But even with her near-constant teleports, the wraiths attacked quickly, firing blasts of light at her as soon as she reappeared. A breath caught in Elsa's throat as Anna barely teleported in time to avoid one.

Elsa felt something on her arm, and realized that frost had begun to form over her gloves. She glanced at Helen and, relieved that she was still watching Anna, brushed her hands against her sides discreetly.

"Aren't they far enough away yet?" Elsa asked. She felt like an impatient child, but her anxiety was stronger than her pride right now.

"Yes, I'll join her now." Helen flicked her wrist, causing an enormous scythe to materialize in her hand, then looked back at Elsa. "Don't worry, I'll keep her safe."

Helen ran forward faster than any ordinary human could, brandishing her scythe low at her side.

Elsa wished she could believe Helen's promise.

* * *

Anna had entered the battle with an angry zeal. Again, Elsa only spoke to her to tell her what to do, even when people's lives were at risk. But as the battle wore on and Anna kept teleporting, that zeal was replaced by worry and exhaustion as she used up her magic reserves luring the wraiths away from the building.

Finally, when Anna thought she could only manage a few more teleports, Helen arrived. She didn't waste a moment, immediately jumping into the fray and swinging her scythe in wide arcs as she cut through the wraiths. Anna could have sighed in relief.

_Good job. You can leave most of the fighting to me. Just stay put and defend yourself so that they don't try to surround me._ Helen said.

_Thanks. I won't let them gang up on you._

Anna was busy fighting off the wraiths that attacked her, relying on the strange instinct she had for where blows would land to dodge attacks and lash out with her spear without relying on her teleports. For the most part, she could only focus on the wraiths directly attacking her as she struggled to survive.

Still, from the corner of her eye she could see flashes of light and hear echoing booms as Helen shot orange bolts of light from her free hand with sharp flicks of her wrist. The bolts exploded on contact with wraiths, taking several of them out at a time. Within a few minutes, all of the wraiths were gone, leaving only black cubes on the ground as the fog began to disperse.

Anna dropped to her knees, placing her hands on the ground as she panted. Helen seemed tired too, sitting down and pulling a few grief cubes from pocket, which she applied to the heart-shaped soul gem set in her gold chain necklace. She sighed as the corruption flowed from it.

_Here, clean up your soul gem._ Helen tossed her another few grief cubes, which Anna caught. _Take your time to rest. I'll get the grief cubes._

Anna nodded to her in gratitude. Helen got up and wandered across the road and lawn in front of the town hall, picking up the grief cubes she came across.

As Anna cleansed her soul gem, she heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Elsa approaching her. The footsteps slowed as Elsa got closer. Her hands were clenched at her sides. Elsa just stood there for a few seconds, watching the darkness leave Anna's soul gem. A few times her body tensed as though she was about to step forward, but she never did. The expression on Elsa's face was one Anna had never seen before.

"Do you need help with that?" Elsa finally asked, her voice small.

It was strange. Anna was the type of person who kept grudges, but she never could stay angry at Elsa. Especially not when Elsa made one of those faces that reminded her of how little she knew about her sister.

"No, I'm good. Actually, I changed my mind. Can you get me a couple more of those grief cubes? I don't have the energy to walk around right now."

Elsa nodded and joined Helen in checking the ground for grief cubes. A few minutes later, all of them were collected and Elsa returned to Anna, wordlessly dropping them in Anna's hand. Anna brought the entire pile up to her soul gem, sucking all of the corruption out in one go.

She got up and they walked to join Helen at her car. Elsa walked beside her but was still keeping her distance.

"Aren't you worried about missing classes?" Anna asked, not really expecting an answer. "It's not like you can actually do anything here, and you don't have to be in danger."

Elsa flinched. Had she said something wrong?

"That's none of your concern." She didn't meet Anna's gaze as she answered.

Anna nodded slowly and stayed silent for the rest of the walk. She was probably pushing too hard, expecting too much. This was still more progress that she'd made with Elsa in the last two days than in the last few years put together.

* * *

"Well, you'd better get to your afternoon classes, at least." Helen said, waving Anna goodbye. "I'll get going too. See you later."

"Bye. Thanks for the help!" Anna waved back as Helen began to walk away with Kyubey on her shoulder. Elsa waved too, to Anna's partial surprise.

Anna was more surprised when Elsa walked her to her next class. When they reached it, Anna stopped, waiting outside the door. Elsa stopped too.

"So." Anna began, not sure what she wanted to say.

"So." Elsa repeated, an eyebrow raised.

Anna giggled and, a few seconds later, Elsa did too.

Anna smiled. "I'll see you later."

Elsa hesitated, then nodded. "I'll see you later."

Anna turned away and stepped into the classroom. Her history teacher was annoyed that she was late and Anna mumbled some terrible excuse. She never was good at lying. But her teacher just rolled his eyes and gestured towards her seat, wanting to get on with the lesson.

Anna was so exhausted from the battle that she slept through the entire lesson. When she left class, blinking hard in an effort to stay alert, she almost missed seeing Kristen leaning against the lockers in front of the door.

Kristen was dressed in worn jeans and a hoodie, her pigtails tucked under a wool cap in spite of the slow arrival of spring. It was quite a contrast to the magical girl outfit Anna had seen the previous day.

"New girl." Kristen said blandly.

"Oh, hi, you're the girl I met yesterday, right?" Anna said. It couldn't hurt to be polite even if Kristen wouldn't extend the same courtesy to her. "Did you want to talk to me?"

"Yeah." Kristen glanced each way along the hallway where throngs of students were heading to their next classes. Kristen started to walk away. "Come with me. I'd rather talk someplace private."

Anna huffed in annoyance, but decided to go along with it, following in the path that Kristen cleared as she shoved her way through the crowd. She couldn't deny that they had to be careful about discussing magical girl business in public, anyway.

She followed Kristen up the stairs until they reached the door to the roof, which was secured by a heavy padlock. Anna nearly let out a yell when she suddenly held her hand out and transformed. Kristen smashed the padlock with her hand, breaking it, and detransformed right afterwards.

Kristen removed the remnants of the lock, opened the door, and looked back.

"I can fix it with magic later," she said upon seeing Anna's expression. Kristen walked through the door.

Anna struggled to control her shocked features. She didn't like looking like a newbie. After a few seconds, she joined Kristen on the roof. Kristen was looking down, watching students walk from building to building.

Anna didn't say anything. To be honest, Kristen was a bit intimidating. Suddenly, Kristen turned and stared at her.

"Why did you become a magical girl?" Kristen asked.

Anna blinked. She hadn't been expecting an interrogation.

"Wraiths were about to attack the school. I couldn't just let them hurt people." Anna responded instinctively.

Kristen frowned. "And Kyubey just forgot to mention that there were other magical girls here until after you contracted, didn't he? Typical. You shouldn't trust him, you know. There's a reason I waited until I knew he was with Helen to talk."

Anna crossed her arms. Her annoyance was back. "Look, I don't know what your deal is, but you and Helen showed up late. If I hadn't become a magical girl, people could have died. Besides, if Kyubey is so bad, why would he grant wishes or help us fight wraiths?"

Kristen shook her head. Her narrow-eyed expression made Anna's blood boil. She just knew Kristen was looking down on her.

"I never said Kyubey was evil. He just can't be trusted. He doesn't think like us humans and he has his own agenda. He doesn't particularly care about us magical girls, either." Kristen's words were bitter, as though spoken from personal experience, and gave Anna pause.

She couldn't deny that Kyubey was different. Something about him bothered her. She shook her head, dismissing it. She was just being paranoid. She'd take what Kyubey said from now on with a grain of salt, but she couldn't start suspecting him just because he wasn't human when she had no proof that he'd done anything wrong.

"Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?"

"No. Look, I'm trying to do you a favor here, so listen up. You're a magical girl now and you need all the help you can get." Kristen said, her brow furrowed.

Anna sighed and uncrossed her arms. Kristen got on her nerves, but she really could use the advice, and she did seem to want to help. "Alright, I'm listening."

Kristen's eyes were focused, unlike the slightly apathetic look she usually wore.

"First of all, forget all of that hero stuff. It won't help you. Saving people's lives? Get real. You're a soldier now. You can't save everyone, you can't tell anyone what you're going through, and the other magical girls? You'd be lucky if they just stayed out of your way." Kristen's jaw set as she spoke, her face tense.

Anna frowned. "What are you talking about? Helen and I get along fine."

Kristen turned slightly and glanced at the ground, as though searching for someone. "You can't trust Helen either. She has a bad reputation among magical girls. She must want you for something."

"What, you want me to believe rumors now?" Anna crossed her arms again.

Anna had been grieving during her first few weeks of high school after her father died. Some of her classmates thought the new girl was weird, and hadn't hesitated to let others know it. Anna had ended up crying in a bathroom when she heard a particularly nasty joke about how she didn't have friends for a good reason.

When she overheard someone calling Elsa a bitch, she'd gotten into a fistfight.

"Rumors exist for a reason. You can't be too careful." Kristen insisted.

"Look, I'm new to all of this, but I'm not changing who I am. I'm not fighting wraiths to be a hero. I'm doing it because it's the right thing to do. And I can tell Helen is a good person."

"You've known her for barely two days. You don't know anything about her." Kristen said, her voice losing its anger in exasperation.

Anna stood her ground.

Kristen scowled. "It's your funeral."

She walked towards the door.

"Wait." Anna called out. Kristen turned to face her, and she held her gaze. "Look, I still don't think I can believe some of the things you said, but I do think you really are trying to help me so…thanks."

Kristen paused, then grunted in acknowledgement. The door slammed, leaving Anna alone on the roof.

Anna took in the view for a few more seconds before going back to class. But Kristen's warnings were at the front of her mind even when she got home.

* * *

Elsa paced back and forth in her room. She was enjoying this too much. It was interfering with her ability to keep Anna safe.

It was hard. She liked Anna. She enjoyed her walks with her sister and she even enjoyed being with her after the battle, despite the danger Anna had been in during it. A not insignificant part of her was thrilled to have an excuse to spend time with her little sister again. She couldn't allow that to cloud her judgement. She couldn't let herself forget that she was dangerous.

She had accomplished her goals for the day. She had watched over Anna while she fought, learned more about wraiths and magical girls, and assessed Helen.

Helen was not a direct threat. She seemed like a decent person and had good control over her magic. Still, willingly or not she was putting Anna in danger. But even if Elsa could convince Anna to avoid Helen, that would leave Anna to fight wraiths alone, which was unacceptable.

Elsa sighed. Her ice was still the greatest threat to Anna, but she couldn't avoid Anna entirely anymore.

Elsa took off her gloves and began practicing her control exercises as her father had taught her. However, ice almost immediately formed on her hands once she took the gloves off no matter how hard she tried to not feel anything. What little control she once had had disappeared with her father's death. It didn't help that these exercises reminded her of him.

Elsa kept practicing.

Not so far away, a magical girl sat on the roof of a house, dangling her legs over the side. Kyubey was curled up in her lap. They both watched a holographic screen projected in midair showing Elsa using magic.

_I've said it before, but it really is incredible that a human could access her magic even before becoming a magical girl._ Kyubey said.

_Yeah, she must be pretty damn powerful. _Helen smirked as she touched the screen, causing it to focus in on Elsa.

_Really, though, this could have been done fifteen times as quickly if we'd taken the direct approach I suggested and forced her to contract to save her life. It would have been quite easy to observe her use magic in each stage of her life cycle and then reproduce her power. And every second saved is precious when fighting entropy. I'm tempted to think you're trying to catch two birds with one stone._

Helen snorted. _You might know everything there is to know about entropy, Kyubey, but you don't understand humans at all. I've been watching them for weeks now. It's obvious that she cares about her sister a great deal. It's much easier to use her sister to manipulate her than to use a blunt approach._

_Are you really so confident in your ability to control Anna? If you are so good at it, why not manipulate Elsa directly?_

_Elsa is a frigid bitch. It'd take a lot longer to work with her. But I had an easy enough time testing Anna today, didn't I? She agreed to that stupid battle plan even though it nearly got her killed. She's desperate for attention. Just play to her hero complex, use her disagreements with her sister against her, and she's putty in my hands. Besides, this way we can avoid the risk of killing Elsa in the process of getting her to contract. If this plan fails, we can always fall back to your plan. And with this plan, Elsa's wish will be more powerful._

_Fine. I can't deny that humans are incomprehensibly irrational. You're one of the only exceptions to that rule. It's encouraging that some humans have reasonable goals and take every measure they need to achieve them._

_Thank you._

_You're welcome. __Also, don't forget to get Elsa to use her magic again during the next wraith attack. I need to prepare some instruments to take precise measurements of her magic use._

_Of course. I live to serve._

_You know, I might not be able to understand why humans use sarcasm, but I can detect it. Just don't get too hasty. That final phase of the plan is especially delicate. You'll get to have Elsa in the end, anyway._

Helen's teeth glinted in the moonlight as she licked her lips.


	3. Love Tastes Like Chocolate

A/N: This wouldn't be a magical girl story without an inordinate focus on food, especially cake. I'm looking for a beta reader, so if anyone is interested, please shoot me a PM. I don't need much help with grammar or spelling, but writing is still pretty new to me so help with that and with consistency issues would be useful.

* * *

Anna woke up the next morning in a surprisingly good mood. It was a Saturday and Anna knew exactly what she wanted to do with her time this weekend: she would bake a cake. Obviously the direct approach wasn't working with Elsa, but she knew her sister couldn't resist her patented Triple Chocolate cake.

Elsa raised an eyebrow as Anna bounced past her room, apparently surprised, or perhaps even amused, by Anna's energy. Elsa was curled up on the chair and holding a thick book, probably historical fiction. Anna couldn't stay awake through books like that; she loved medieval fantasy, but Elsa seemed to prefer more realistic books. Anna had learned her preferences by sneaking into her sister's room on the rare occasion that Elsa wasn't home, curious to learn more about her. Unfortunately, Elsa's room was spartan aside from her reading chair and bookshelf.

"You're in a good mood. Are you going somewhere today?" Elsa asked.

Oh. Anna should have known that Elsa left her door open to keep an eye on her.

Anna forced herself to keep smiling. "I'm going shopping for a bit."

Elsa frowned. "Will you be gone long?"

"No, I'm just picking up a few ingredients to bake a cake. It shouldn't take more than an hour. Do you want to help?" Anna asked hopefully. When they were younger, they had so much fun playing with Easy Bake ovens. They were a bit old for that now, but still.

"Not really." Elsa said, looking back down at her book again. Anna's smile dropped.

"Okay, see you." Anna walked away feeling a bit dejected despite her efforts. But then she remembered that she had a friend now, and friends did things together, right? She got her phone out from her pocket, her fingers fumbling over the unfamiliar keyboard.

_Do you like baking? Im making a cake. Want to come?_

Helen replied less than two minutes later.

_Yeah. When do u want me 2 get there?_

_12 should be good._

Anna strode with a spring in her step towards the Shoprite set in a strip mall ten minutes from her house. Even though it was late in the morning, it wasn't warm enough yet for many people to be outside on a Saturday so Anna was able to make good time.

When she got there, she got a cart and walked through the aisles, picking up the things she needed. They had most of the ingredients, she just needed to get some extra Nutella and some frosting. She probably could have made do with a basket, but Anna enjoyed pushing the cart around. It helped that not many people were there in the morning for her to potentially bump into. After she had the required ingredients, she decided to pick up some bread. Her mother wasn't the most diligent when it came to cooking, so they were nearly out and would need more bread for sandwiches.

She was surprised to see Kristen there, and apparently the feeling was mutual. Kristen had paused with her hand halfway outstretched towards the bread. Unlike hers, Kristen's shopping cart was almost full, stuffed with actual groceries like vegetables.

"Don't mind me." Anna said. Kristen paused, then nodded and put the bread in her cart.

"Running errands for your parents or something?" Anna asked, suddenly curious. She wasn't as annoyed by Kristen as she'd been the previous day. It probably helped that Kristen hadn't opened her mouth yet.

"Something like that." Kristen pulled her cart back to get past, but stopped. Anna was blocking the entire aisle.

Anna continued talking, oblivious. "Oh, come on. I know you can say more than that. You did yesterday."

Kristen scowled. "You're right, I do have something to say. I don't have parents. I have _a_ parent, and I'm shopping because she can't get out of bed while you're here to play at cooking. Now get out of my way."

Anna flinched and pushed her cart to the side in a hurry, allowing Kristen to roughly push past her.

Anna felt her eyes prickle with half-formed tears. She wasn't sure whether they were from sadness or anger. Kristen stopped a few steps away and then turned back.

Kristen sighed. "Look, I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm just having a bad day."

Anna nodded stiffly, still unable to find her voice. Kristen looked away for a few seconds before speaking.

"You're done with your shopping, right? Come with me. I'll get you a donut." Kristen began pushing her cart away and Anna followed after grabbing a loaf of bread.

Maybe Anna should have been more annoyed at Kristen's transparent attempt at buying forgiveness. But she'd begun to consider why Kristen had said that, and if she was right she could understand a little too well.

They got in line at one of the registers. There wasn't much crowd so they didn't have to wait long to pay for their items, but it took several minutes for all of Kristen's items to be scanned.

The Dunkin Donuts next to the Shoprite was not very crowded now, but Anna occupied a table for them anyway while Kristen bought the donuts. When she was done, Kristen walked over and handed her a Boston Cream, keeping one for herself, and took a seat across from Anna.

Anna frowned slightly, not taking a bite just yet despite the temptation.

"Sorry if I reminded you about your father. My dad died pretty recently, so I wouldn't want to do that to anyone else." Anna said, looking down.

Kristen blinked. "What? No, I'm adopted. I thought you'd heard about it."

"How would I know about that?"

Kristen's eyes lost their focus, gazing at something out of sight. "Never mind. I guess I misjudged you."

The conversation died after that, and they spent the next few minutes eating the donuts in silence. As she ate, Anna thought about the girl in front of her. She couldn't quite place Kristen. She was nice one moment and not the next. Anna got the feeling that Kristen had been through a lot, but Kristen didn't seem like the kind of person who would appreciate questions.

Kristen finished her donut first and stood up to leave.

"You really should at least listen to me about Kyubey, you know."

Anna smiled. "And you really should know that I won't."

Kristen just shook her head and left, though Anna thought the lines around her eyes briefly wrinkled with amusement.

* * *

Normally, Elsa was able to distract herself from her problems for a few hours by reading, but for the last few days that had been impossible. This morning she'd spent an hour rereading the same page over and over again without any of it sinking in. Finally, Elsa gave up, closing the book and getting up to put it back on the shelf.

_Have you thought some more about becoming a magical girl? Do you know what you want to wish for?_

Elsa swept her eyes across the room until she found the source of the voice. She narrowed her eyes when she spotted Kyubey sitting on her windowsill. She should have known better than to open the window. From now on, she would have to make sure all the windows at home were closed.

"Get out."

_Won't you at least hear me out? How can you make an optimal decision if you ignore relevant information?_

Elsa crossed her arms.

_I will leave for now. Let me know if you change your mind._

Kyubey jumped from the window to a branch of the tree that grew in the front yard and scampered away. Elsa waited a few seconds before shutting the window.

There was no way Elsa would ever accept Kyubey's contract. The last thing she needed was more magic. Ineffectual though it was, Kyubey's pestering was still annoying. It also forced her to brood on the terrible situation Anna was in. It didn't help. She was already doing everything she could, which wasn't much.

Elsa reconsidered the possibility of telling her mother. It wasn't the promise she'd made to Anna that kept her from doing it. She'd break any promise in order to protect Anna. However, if she did Anna wouldn't let her watch over her during wraith hunts.

Perhaps their mother could watch Anna instead? It would be safer, but Elsa couldn't be sure that Anna would agree to it, especially after Elsa broke her promise. Perhaps their mother could try to force Anna to comply by threatening to pull her out of school and have her homeschooled again. Elsa didn't think that would work, though. Anna could be very stubborn, especially when she thought she was doing the right thing such as by not putting her family in danger.

Elsa spent the next half hour attempting to work on her homework. The house was quiet. Anna was gone and her mother was still sleeping off a night shift at the hospital. The solitude usually didn't bother Elsa; it was a relief compared to the constant struggle of controlling herself when she was in public. But now she felt lonely. Elsa knew why, but she couldn't give in to it. Talking to Anna when they had no choice but to be together was alright. But going out of her way to spend time with Anna – or anyone else, for that matter – was unacceptable.

It didn't help that Elsa couldn't even talk to her mother about it. All her life, her parents had been the only ones Elsa could confide in when it came to magic. It was limited, of course. She couldn't convey just how scared and powerless she felt sometimes. At the end of the day they were her parents, and there was a thin line that separated them; they were not equals. But now, with her father dead and Elsa's tongue held by her promise, she didn't even have that.

Someone knocked on the front door. It wasn't Anna; she'd taken the keys with her. Elsa looked out her window to see Helen waiting on the front steps with her hands in the pockets of her jeans.

Elsa walked downstairs at a measured pace, not rushing but not exactly dragging her feet either. She opened the door.

"Hi. Are you here to see Anna?" Elsa asked, not yet moving from the doorway to let Helen in. She'd be polite, but she wasn't thrilled with the possibility of having Helen in her home.

"Yeah, we're baking a cake together." Helen said. At least she was still waiting outside respectfully.

"I see. Anna's still getting the ingredients. Why don't you come in?"

Elsa didn't let her annoyance show as she led Helen to the family room. She waited until Helen sat down one of the sofas and then promptly chose the other one. The clock ticked by as Elsa waited for Helen to attempt some small talk, but thankfully Helen seemed to get the hint that she wasn't interested. Perhaps they could get along after all.

* * *

Anna's walk back home was quiet, only broken by the rustling of the grocery bags as she swung them by her legs. It gave her time to think. She'd seen something in Kristen that reminded her of herself, and that had given her more pause than anything Kristen had said the previous day. It wouldn't change the way she acted, but maybe she should give Kristen's advice more consideration.

Anna was surprised to see Kyubey waiting on the side of the road when she turned a corner. He jumped up to her shoulder, which wasn't very stable because of the bags she carried, before finally settling on her head. It would have been quite uncomfortable if he wasn't lighter than he should have been for his size.

_I thought you were with Helen. _Anna said.

_She arrived at your house a few minutes ago, but Elsa didn't want to talk to me so I decided that I would wait to arrive with you._

_Did you say anything to make her mad?_ Anna said carefully.

_I just wanted to talk to her about becoming a magical girl, but she didn't even want to listen. She had nothing to lose by just talking._

_Hmm._

Anna tried not to let her relief show. She hadn't thought that Elsa would become a magical girl, so when Kyubey mentioned it she realized for the first time that Elsa too might one day have to risk her life fighting wraiths. If even half of what Kristen had said about being a magical girl was true, she didn't want Elsa to have to go through it. It didn't seem like Anna had anything to worry about, but she was annoyed that she hadn't thought of it.

_Hey, Kyubey. If I become better at fighting wraiths, you won't need Elsa to make a contract, right?_

There was a pause. _I suppose not. I can hold off on asking her to contract if you prefer._

_You can do that?_

_Of course. Maintaining good relationships with current magical girls is just as important as recruiting new ones. _

_Thank you! I won't let you down._

It was as though the sun had come back out. Kristen had said that Kyubey didn't care about her, but obviously that wasn't true. He might be a little strange, but he was nice.

Anna reached the house a minute later and let herself in.

"Hi, Anna." Helen greeted her as she walked into the family room.

"Hi." Anna flashed a grin at her before glancing at Elsa, who she'd expected to still be waiting in her room. "Did you change your mind?"

Elsa's arms were folded and she sat straight-backed on the sofa. It defeated the entire purpose of the cushions. Elsa seemed to avoid looking at Kyubey when she looked at Anna.

"Another pair of hands can't hurt." Helen said.

Elsa examined Helen's face for a few seconds before looking away. "No, I just came downstairs to watch some TV. You two have fun." Elsa grabbed the TV remote and turned it on, flicking through the channels.

Anna looked down. She shouldn't have been disappointed. She hadn't been expecting anything different and she should have been used to it by now, but it still hurt every time Elsa rejected her. She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, are you alright? Let's make that cake, okay?" Helen said, her eyes warm and understanding.

Anna snapped out of the haze. "Right. Let's get cooking!" She led Helen to the kitchen, grateful for Helen's distraction.

_Why are you preparing a cake yourself when you can purchase one cheaply? _Kyubey said as they got the ingredients out. _In fact, eating cake at all is inefficient nutritionally, thermodynamically, economically, and even environmentally. The most efficient way to produce food would be for you humans to eat only grains, legumes, and vegetables and graze livestock only on land that isn't arable._

Helen rolled her eyes. "It's cake, Kyubey. It's delicious."

Anna grimaced. "I try to be careful about the environment, but I can't give up cake."

_Humans. I will meet you back at your house later, Helen. _Kyubey stretched, jumped down from Anna's head, and scurried away.

"Where did he go?" Anna asked. Helen shrugged.

They worked for several minutes, their heads nearly touching as they pored over the recipe that Anna had printed out.

"You're good at this." Helen said as Anna began to mix the eggs and milk with the dry ingredients.

Anna blushed. "Who, me? No, I'm getting ingredients all over the place."

"No, really. I can't crack eggs like you can. But, you know, you don't need to struggle like that. Let me show you something."

Helen gestured for beater, and Anna handed it to her and pushed the bowl over. Helen rolled up her sleeves and picked up the beater again. Suddenly her arm was a whirl of motion and the ingredients were mixing as fast as with any electric beater.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Helen looked over to her with a cocky grin.

"You can do that without transforming?!" Anna said. Even Kristen hadn't been able to do that when she broke the lock to the school roof. She hadn't known it was possible.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Elsa staring at them, but when she looked, Elsa was facing forward again. Anna shifted her gaze back to Helen, who'd started explaining.

"It takes a little practice and it's limited, but yeah. I can show you sometime. Actually, why don't we practice together tomorrow? I've been meaning to train you a bit."

Anna nodded eagerly. "I'd love that."

Helen returned to beating the cake mix and Anna leaned back against the counter, enjoying the clicking of the beating and the background of the news channel that Elsa was watching. She paid more attention when she heard a familiar name.

"-Johansen de Isles, the billionaire born and raised here in the county of Arendelle, bought out Robertson Technical this week and immediately laid off a quarter of the employees, numbering almost three hundred. Here's an exclusive interview with him," a news reporter said.

Anna glanced at the TV. A man with graying red hair in a gray suit towered over the reporter who was attempting to hold the microphone close to his face. It probably wasn't necessary because his voice boomed even over the rain in the background.

"If you can't contribute anything, you aren't worth anything. This country was built on hard work, and there isn't any room for incompetents. It's just like parenting, and I should know; I have twelve children. They don't get handouts. They have to earn it."

Helen's arm jerked and a drop of batter splashed out of the bowl and onto Anna's face. She wiped it off.

"Was that your father?" Anna asked.

Helen sighed. "Yeah."

Anna didn't know what to say. She didn't even know for sure what had upset Helen. So she tried to distract Helen with preparing the baking pan.

While the cake baked, she showed Helen her room. She hadn't had time to decorate it much, but she did have her stuffed animal collection arranged around her bed.

"This is Rosie," she said, handing Helen her favorite, a stuffed dolphin. Anna bit her lip. Why had she thought this would be a good idea?

"Aww. It's cute." Helen squeezed it appreciatively, then tickled Anna's nose with it, making her laugh.

"Thanks!" And she really was thankful. Anna knew some of the "friends" she'd made at school would have mocked her for it.

They spent the next hour lounging on her bed, listening to music, and talking about school. It was normal, in a way that Anna had never really experienced.

Before she knew it, the timer was beeping, and they rushed to the kitchen to retrieve the cake. They prepared the Nutella frosting, applied it, and then it was finished. They took a moment to appreciate the accomplishment. The cake was perfectly round and Helen apparently had an artistic side because she'd done a decent job of decorating with frills on the edges and chocolate hearts identical to her soul gem.

"Not bad." Helen said, nodding.

"Not bad at all." Anna agreed. It was better than anything she could have made on her own. They really did make a good team.

Anna sliced the cake and put two slices on plates, which she and Helen took to the table. Anna carried another plate to Elsa, who was still watching TV on the couch. Anna held it in front of her.

"The cake's done. Do you want to eat with us or…?" Anna said hesitantly.

Elsa didn't reach for the plate. "Why are you giving me this? I didn't help you." Elsa's voice trembled slightly.

Anna frowned, confused. "It's just natural, right? Just take it."

Elsa took the plate and took a bite with her fork, eating it slowly. "It's good." Her voice still had that strange quality to it.

Anna beamed smugly. "Of course it is. It's chocolate."

"They do say that chocolate tastes like love." Elsa muttered. Anna sent a questioning look at her, but Elsa didn't explain. "Thank you. Save a slice for our mother too."

"Yeah, I will." Anna smiled and joined Helen at the table. They ate quickly, enjoying a companionable silence as they focused on the flavor, and soaked in the afterglow for a few minutes. Finally, Helen got up to leave and Anna walked her to the front door.

"I had a lot of fun today," Helen said as she tied her shoes.

"Me too. See you tomorrow!"

They waved goodbye and Anna returned to the kitchen. After thinking for a moment, she packaged one of the slices separately from the others. She would give that one to Kristen sometime. Maybe it would make her less grumpy? Anna giggled to herself. She would use the rest over the course of the week to blackmail Elsa into talking to her. Anna put one of the slices on a plate, carried it upstairs to her mother's bedroom, and knocked on the door. It was about time for her to wake up.

Her mom opened the door, her eyes barely open and her hair messy. She was still wearing her nursing uniform from the night before, which was now crinkled.

"Do you want some cake?"

Her mom accepted it, smiling blearily, and moaned appreciatively as she ate it, not even bothering to sit down first.

"This is good. Did you make it yourself?" she asked afterwards. She sat on the bed and patted the spot next to her. Anna sat down.

"I made it with a friend from school." Anna said, trying not to let her happiness be too obvious.

"You made a friend? I'm happy for you."

Anna looked away.

"What's wrong, Anna?"

"It's strange. For a few hours I- I forgot about Dad." Anna choked up, tears beginning to form.

Her mother reached an arm around her and pulled her close. "Oh, Anna. You deserve to be happy. Your father would be glad too."

Anna didn't hear anything. She buried her face in her mother's side as the tears washed away her grief. When she was done, she knew she could finally move on and create a new life with her mother, her sister, with Helen, and maybe even with Kristen and Kyubey. She would never forget her father, but she wouldn't let grief hold her back any more.

* * *

_You are going to train her? Her survival is not necessary for our plan._

_So you were eavesdropping. Relax. I have everything under control._

_If I didn't know better, I would think that you're starting to get attached to her. Don't you follow that philosophy that all the world's a stage? Don't forget Anna's role._

_I will play my part._

_That wasn't a denial._

Helen cut off the connection and gazed out her window. The grounds were large and well-maintained, fitting for her enormous home – a necessity for someone with her father's influence and thirteen children. So why did it feel so much emptier than Anna's?

She shook her head. It was too late to turn back now. She returned to her notebook and made some final adjustments to the map of the territory of every magical girl in Arendelle County.


	4. Strength of Heart, Strength of Mind

There was exactly one vice that Helen allowed herself to indulge in, and that was exercise.

She woke up at 6 a.m. every morning to jog and work out while in human form. It was frivolous, really – as a magical girl she was already stronger than any human could ever be. Her technique of accessing a limited quantity of her magic even in human form, another frivolity considering it only took a split second to transform, made her strength as a human redundant.

However, she couldn't deny the thrill of improving herself, of pushing the limits of what she was capable of. It was the same drive that drove her to study until she was at the top of her class, befriend as many of her father's acquaintances – and enemies – behind his back as she could, and absorb every scrap of information she found on running a business.

Helen was nothing like her father, but she did agree with him on one matter: no matter how much you were born with, in order to truly become powerful and stay powerful you had to earn it.

So Helen worked tirelessly, so that one day he would be the powerless one. And if Anna could learn some of her habits, well, perhaps she would actually be useful.

* * *

"Do it again." Helen said, her voice taking on an authoritative edge that Anna didn't hear from her often.

Anna narrowed her eyes in concentration as she threw her spear, willing it to go where she wished it to. It vanished mid-trajectory and reappeared at the opposite end of their makeshift training field, angled downward to strike the rubber martial arts target directly in its center.

Helen nodded her approval. "Not bad. You can take a break for a minute. I'm going to practice my aim for a bit."

Anna exhaled deeply as she slid to the ground, spreading her arms on the soft grass. She took in the muted sounds and flashes of light of Helen firing a much weaker form of her area attack at the targets. They were at Helen's home, training on a soccer field secluded from the rest of the grounds by a small grove of trees. The rest of Helen's family was apparently gone for the day and Helen had forbidden the groundskeeper and other servants from disturbing them. Without the memory-fuzzing influence of the wraiths' miasma they had to be careful about using their abilities in public, which was why it was fortunate that Helen had such a convenient training area.

Anna grimaced. She really shouldn't have considered it fortunate. The only reason they were able to meet at Helen's home in the first place was that her family had left her there alone.

Elsa walked up to her and handed her a few grief cubes. She must have kept some from the previous battle.

"Use these." Elsa said firmly.

"Thanks." Anna said, lifting them up to her soul gem. She resolved to be more careful about that. It wasn't right to rely on Elsa to remind her to keep her soul gem pure.

Elsa nodded and returned to her spot at the edge of the soccer field. Elsa had demanded to come along. It wasn't that Anna minded – it was much less dangerous for her than wraith hunts, anyway – but her refusal to do anything but literally stand on the sidelines was irritating.

After another moment, Anna got up and waved to Helen, who abandoned her target practice to join her.

"You're feeling better now, right? I wanted to come up with another battle formation." Helen dived into a more detailed explanation of her plans for future battles and Anna did her best to keep up.

Helen's training had been much different than she'd imagined. She already instinctively knew how to use her spear and move in battle, so Helen hadn't bothered with that. Instead, Helen focused on getting Anna more used to fighting with her enhanced strength and speed with some unarmed sparring. In addition to that, they came up with strategies to work together more efficiently in combat and Helen tested the limits of Anna's magic. At Helen's prompting, Anna had sensed that she could teleport one person with her, though it would take more magic. Teleporting objects like her spear hadn't been possible, but Helen had insisted that it would be very useful so she spent several hours under Helen's tutelage experimenting with her magic until she finally figured it out. According to Helen magic was actually rather flexible, at least when it came to learning skills that were conceptually linked to a magical girl's primary abilities. Anna was even able to control the trajectory of the spear when it rematerialized, just as she had could control which direction she faced when she teleported. The combat advantages were obvious, and Helen promised to teach her how to summon more spears to complement it.

Anna hid her smile as Helen's speech on strategy continued. When she was talking about magic Helen could be really talkative. Anna could tell how much it meant to her.

* * *

Elsa felt surprisingly content as she watched over Helen and Anna's training. Aside from nearly having an aneurism when they started sparring, it was a good day. The sun shone without a cloud in the sky, the birds chirped prettily, and the temperature was at that perfect level only found in early spring. If time could be stopped at that moment, Elsa might have been happy. They could be together and even the magic they all possessed was not threatening anyone now.

The training itself reminded Elsa of her exercises with her father. It was strange to think of him. Sometimes the memories of past happiness were too painful too touch, like shards of broken glass, and at other times they were comforting. Elsa regretted her magic, yes, but she didn't regret the time she'd spent with her parents because of it.

Her father had told her that she could control it, his voice confident with his faith in her, and she had practiced hard to meet his expectations. He was never afraid to touch her and ignored her when she protested despite what she had done to Anna.

"I knew you could do it," he had said, hugging her, when she'd finally gained enough control that he deemed her fit to attend public school.

The illusion of time held still and magic without danger shattered when Kyubey appeared, walking out from among the trees. Elsa did not need to be a mind reader to know what that meant.

_Another group of wraiths has appeared at the edge of town._ Kyubey said.

* * *

The western end of the town was relatively empty. There were only a few small houses interspersed with large tracts of grass. The wraith swarm was even larger than Friday's, but thankfully it was still quite far from the houses.

"Let's use formation B," Helen said, catching Anna's eye.

"Right." Anna replied, feeling more confident than last time.

They hadn't trained for very long, but she knew their improved teamwork and strategy would make a large difference. They held out their soul gems and transformed without delay in a burst of color. Helen ran toward the wraiths, summoning her scythe to her hand with a flick of her wrist as she did.

Formation B was for when a large group of wraiths was far enough away from anyone who could get hurt that Helen could use her area attacks. It was up to Anna to use her teleportation to stay mobile and take out any wraiths that got past Helen. She didn't particularly like leaving Helen to do the bulk of the fighting, but she couldn't deny that it was a solid plan and that the older magical girl was much more effective at fighting large groups than her.

"Get back!" Anna hissed at Elsa, keeping one eye on the wraiths that Helen was blasting away with bolts of light. Her sister was too close to the battle for her liking even if she would be using her teleportation to take out the wraiths before they got close enough to threaten her.

Elsa took exactly two steps backward. Anna sighed. Why did her sister have to be so stubborn and unreasonable? She expected Anna to be cautious but had no care for her own safety.

Anna noticed a wraith begin to approach, having avoided Helen's attacks. Anna appeared next to it, striking it down with a thrust of her spear that struck dead center and passed through it, plunging into the ground below. The wraith disappeared with a puff of air and Anna wrenched the spear free.

The next few wraiths went down just as easily. Against lone opponents Anna's mobility made her nigh-untouchable. But as the battle wore on, Helen's blasts became smaller and weaker, and she was forced to rely on her scythe more instead.

_Are you okay?_ Anna asked frantically as she impaled another wraith.

_This group is too large and this attack uses too much magic. I'm sorry. It looks like I can't hold all of them off._

_Don't worry about it. I can handle it. Just be careful._

There was no reply, but Anna hoped she would listen. There was no point if they didn't all make it out alive.

A larger group of wraiths, over half a dozen this time, moved past Helen.

_Get back!_ Anna repeated to Elsa, not bothering to use normal speech.

This time her sister listened, shuffling backwards quickly, but dread still wormed at Anna's stomach. If she lost, Elsa wouldn't be able to get away in time and the people who lived in this area would be defenseless. And she knew her magic well enough by now to realize that it was already more than halfway depleted.

Anna tightened her grip on her spear and flashed forward, impaling the lead wraith and teleporting away before the others could attack her. She repeated the maneuver once more, but in larger groups the wraiths were able to use the same tactics that had stumped her in her first battle, using a minimal number of lasers to force her to teleport and bombarding her when she reappeared, leaving her no time to counterattack and forcing her to waste magic on frequent teleports.

Anna had no choice but to change her strategy, even if it was riskier. She stood her ground, relying on her instincts – or precognition, as Helen called it – to dodge the laser beams, instead throwing and teleporting her spear to kill the wraiths. It was more magically costly since her magic was designed to transport people, but this was the only way she could land hits. Her magical girl outfit was shredded where lasers glanced off of her, burning the skin underneath as she barely avoided them.

Only two wraiths were left when Anna ran out of magic. She glanced at her armband, alarmed. Her soul gem was almost completely black, with only a few motes of lavender light. There wasn't enough left for another teleport.

_Helen? I need some help. _She said, eyeing the wraiths nervously as they approached her.

There was no response. Helen was surrounded by wraiths, reduced to fighting them with her scythe, though her movements were slower than usual. Every bit of her concentration must have been focused on staying alive.

_You know, I can still ask Elsa to contract. _Kyubey said on a private channel.

_No. _

These days it seemed that Elsa was always looking after her, even against her wishes. Maybe it was her right, as the older sister. But just this once, Anna wanted to be the selfish one.

Anna raised her spear, no longer bothering with angling it to defend herself, instead focusing on speed and offence. The second wraith would hit her with its laser while she was dealing with the first no matter what she did. The only chance of success was an all-out attack.

Anna yelled and sprinted forward, gouging the earth with the strength of her steps.

* * *

The battle was not going well. They were going to die. Anna was going to die. Elsa realized this the moment Helen's attacks began to falter. But what could she do? There was no one to call for help. Should she use her magic? Did the benefits outweigh the risks, just this once?

Indecision gripped her and her thoughts were scrambled by a voiceless scream.

Her true nature was weakness. She was never strong enough, not strong enough to control her magic, not strong enough to choose, not strong enough to protect her sister.

Then Anna yelled and charged forward in what was obviously a suicide attack.

Elsa heard a voice cry out "No!" and she realized it was hers.

Everything was a blur. When the world made sense again, the first thing she noticed was that Anna was staring at her, a complete lack of understanding wrinkling her forehead, and so was Helen. Kyubey sat unblinking as though nothing was wrong.

The former battlefield was nothing but spikes and pillars of ice surrounded by grief cubes. Her gloves were covered in ice.

She'd failed.


	5. Eye of the Storm

Elsa's first instinct had been to run. There was no plan in place, nothing to fall back on for the scenario in which she lost control in front of other people. Her father had simply squeezed her shoulder just enough to hurt and said not to let it happen and that she would probably be taken away by men in suits if she failed.

It took a moment for her to realize that she had no chance of outrunning either of them. Instead, Elsa simply refused to answer their questions. It wasn't hard to ignore them. She could barely hear them over the turmoil inside. Eventually they gave up, and Helen drove them back home.

That night, Elsa twisted from one position to another in her bed, never finding a comfortable one and forced to think about the events of the day no matter how much she longed for the oblivion of sleep. At least she didn't have to worry about men in suits. Only Helen and Anna had seen her and she didn't think either of them would tell anyone.

But that didn't offer her much consolation. Anna knew now, and her sister wasn't an idiot. Anna would make the connection between her magic and her self-imposed isolation. Anna had been willing to mostly respect her wish to be left alone because she thought that was what Elsa wanted, but now she would not relent no matter how much danger it put her in. Elsa would have to take preemptive measures.

Of course, that still left the matter of her own breach of control. It may have saved Anna's life, but it was still unacceptable. Unfortunately, she couldn't think of anything else she could do. Her control exercises and gloves weren't working, at least not for events as stressful as seeing Anna about to die. Then again, if Anna did come close to death again perhaps Elsa's magic would actually increase her chances of survival. Like how jumping from a burning building would only probably kill you whereas the fire would definitely kill you. There was just no good option.

_That's quite an interesting magic you have._ Kyubey said.

Elsa didn't even have the energy to sit up. She shifted in her bed to face Kyubey, who was sitting on a branch of the tree outside her window. His red eyes caught the light of the streetlights.

"I told you not to come here." Elsa said.

_I'm not actually inside your home. In any case, I'm not here to ask you to contract. I only want to know about your magic. I need to contract magical girls in order to negate entropy. But if there was some way for humans to use magic without becoming magical girls, like you, then I could contract only the minimum number of girls necessary to fight the wraiths. If I had known about you beforehand, I might never have needed to contract Anna._

Elsa's brow furrowed. So Anna being a magical girl was doubly her fault.

"Fine. I will answer some of your questions."

_Very well. To begin with, what triggered the appearance of your magic?_

"I don't know. I've always had it."

Elsa sometimes thought of it as a curse, but if it was then it was one she'd been born with. Her parents had told her about how she'd sneezed snowflakes as an infant. She'd never felt cold either, even in the winter.

_Genetic, perhaps? I will have to conduct analysis. What kind of magic can you use?_

"Ice and snow, like you saw. There's nothing else."

_Why do you dislike magic if you have it yourself? For that matter, why did you keep it secret when you could have used it to help Anna and Helen fight wraiths?_

"I'm done." Elsa said.

_Elsa, I need all the information I can get in order to prevent the heat death of the universe. Don't you care about the long-term survival of your species?_

Elsa turned away and closed her eyes, placing a hand beneath her pillow. She forced her breaths to become slow and regular. After a few minutes, she heard the branches of the tree rustle as Kyubey left.

It was only then that Elsa realized that Kyubey had been able to hear her speak through the closed window.

* * *

Anna chewed her cereal mechanically, barely registering the taste. Nothing had gone well in the two weeks since she found out about Elsa's magic. Her sister sat right in front of her, but she was staring at the bowl as she ate, refusing to make eye contact. Even telepathy didn't get a rise out of her anymore. Anna had tried, once she started getting desperate.

At first Anna had been hopeful. She'd finally known why Elsa had closed herself off from the world for all those years, and it wasn't because of something Anna had done. It didn't take a genius to realize it, especially considering the way Elsa had reacted after she found out. Elsa must have been ashamed of her magic or thought it was dangerous or something.

But just as Anna had prepared to use this knowledge to convince Elsa to open up more, Elsa began shutting her out more than ever before. Elsa continued to watch her and come with her when she fought wraiths, but they barely talked at all anymore. All the progress they'd made over those few days had disappeared.

On top of that, Anna was constantly exhausted. Wraiths appeared at night almost as often as during the day, apparently. Even though she was getting better at fighting them, she wasn't able to sleep consistently. Her grades were dropping too. She still didn't agree with Kristen that being a magical girl wasn't worth it, but she could see where she was coming from.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it, Anna?" Her mother said, coffee mug held still halfway to her mouth.

"Yes, I'm sure." Anna mumbled.

Her mother nodded and continued drinking her coffee, but she didn't look convinced. That was another relationship that wasn't going well, though her mother didn't know why. The looks and private meetings her parents had with Elsa and their insistence on homeschooling made sense if her parents had known about Elsa's magic all along and were trying to hide it. Anna wasn't sure, and she wasn't getting any answers out of Elsa. And the one time Elsa had bothered to talk to her over the last two weeks had been to threaten to spill the beans about her magical girl activities if she talked to their mother about it.

Anna hated to admit to herself that she was a bit afraid of what her mother's answer would be anyway. If her mother knew about it, it would mean that her family had been lying to her, maybe for her whole life. She'd been left out, and maybe her parents were even encouraging Elsa to ignore her.

* * *

Anna's mood improved a bit at school, as she looked forward to meeting Helen for lunch. Helen hadn't been able to help her deal with Elsa – apparently non-magical girls using magic was unheard of – but when she was with Helen her problems felt more manageable.

Helen wasn't at their usual meet-up point in front of the art room, so Anna began walking to the next building over where Helen's class was. Halfway there, she noticed Helen's hair from of the corner of her eye. When she looked closer, she was surprised to see Helen talking to some girl with long, black hair by the side of the road. Helen had other friends, of course, none of which knew about magical girls, but people didn't usually meet at the edge of the campus. Their body language was strange, too. The other girl was shorter than Helen, but was craning her neck to maintain constant direct eye contact despite how uncomfortable it must have been. Anna decided to walk closer, and as she approached she noticed the silver ring on one of the girl's fingers.

The conversation seemed to end by the time Anna got there, though. The other girl glared at Anna before turning and walking away.

"What was that about?" Anna asked nervously.

Helen's eyes were downcast. Anna always felt uncomfortable on the few occasions that Helen wasn't upbeat. Other than her family, there wasn't much that could get her down.

"We have some bad news." Helen said, turning to face Anna. "That girl was from Alta's magical girl team. They think we've been hunting on their territory."

"But we haven't, right?" Anna said, searching Helen's eyes.

Helen looked away.

"The territory divisions are a bit complicated." Helen said, scuffing her shoes against the pavement. "Arendelle County has two major towns, right? Kristen and I hunt in Arendelle, and those two get Alta. But the territories don't follow municipal lines exactly. Territories were passed down from one magical girl to the next for who knows how long. Some of the areas we were hunting in weren't technically in our territory, but they were in Arendelle. I was hoping they'd overlook it or not notice."

"So what does that mean?" Anna said, her stomach sinking. She had a really, really bad feeling about this.

"Grief cubes are life or death for us. This fight can't be avoided, and territory disputes always end one of two ways. Either someone concedes and is forced to leave the area, or someone gets beaten. And we can't afford to concede." Helen said. She looked up again and held Anna's gaze.

Anna swallowed. This was the first time she was hearing about any of this, and it was too much. She hadn't realized that magical girls had their own politics. She hadn't known anything at all.

"I-"

Helen cut her off. "Don't worry about it, Anna. This was my mistake, and it's my responsibility. I wouldn't expect you to fight them."

Anna frowned. Something wasn't right. "But why were we hunting in their territory in the first place?"

"We needed the grief cubes. My territory just didn't have enough wraiths. I'm sorry."

Then it clicked. "It's because of me, isn't it?" Anna said, her voice trembling. "It's like Kristen said. This area doesn't have enough wraiths for three magical girls, so after I contracted you've been having us hunt outside our territory."

Anna paused for a moment, but Helen didn't contradict her. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

Helen sighed. She suddenly looked old, a lot older than anyone their age should.

"I guess I just didn't want you to have to worry about that stuff for a while." Helen said. "I met you after you became a magical girl. It was already too late, and there's nowhere to hunt that's not part of some girl's territory. What would be the point of us both worrying about it?"

Anna didn't know whether to feel angry or just sad. This was exactly the kind of controlling behavior she hated, but she couldn't deny Helen's logic. There really wasn't anything she could have done.

"Look, let's get some lunch." Helen put a hand on Anna's shoulder. "Try not to worry about it too much, okay?"

That lunch was the quietest one they'd ever spent together.

* * *

Kristen looked a bit surprised when Anna found her after lunch. Kristen promptly closed her locker and eyed Anna warily.

"We need to talk." Anna said.

Kristen chuckled. "Look, I appreciate the cake you gave me, but if you wanted to bribe me you should have tried a bit harder."

"It's an emergency." Anna pleaded.

Kristen stopped smiling. "Let's go to the roof then."

The view from the roof made it clear that the world was going on as though everything was normal. Other girls were laughing and talking with their friends while they walked to their classes.

"So what's this about?" Kristen said.

"The magical girls from Alta challenged me and Helen to a duel." Anna said. "Apparently we were hunting on their territory."

Kristen nodded. Her lips tightened a bit, but she didn't seem otherwise disturbed.

"Fighting over territory is pretty normal. I don't know why you wanted to talk to me about it, though. You shouldn't have a hard time winning with Helen on your side. She's supposed to be pretty strong and it's two-on-two."

Anna stared. How could she be so callous?

"Don't you get it? If it was just wraiths, I wouldn't mind fighting. But they're other magical girls just like us. If I fight, I might end up killing someone, but if I don't then Helen might die. I don't know what the right thing to do is!"

Tears began to form in Anna's eyes. She fought it, but was only partially successful. A few tears began to escape, though she at least didn't make any sound. Kristen watched, not moving or saying anything.

Anna had turned to Kristen because she didn't have anyone else to ask. She couldn't ask Helen. She'd just say that Anna didn't have to fight. If she could even get Elsa to talk, she knew Elsa would just make her stay out of the fight.

Finally, Kristen spoke. "When is the duel?"

"At midnight." Anna said, wiping a bit of snot away roughly.

Helen had told her the time and location so that Anna would be able to tell if she was late getting back and didn't text her. In that case, Anna would be able to contact Helen's family to ask if Helen made it back. If not, she was supposed to tell Helen's family where she had gone so that they could retrieve the body. Not that Helen believed they would care.

Anna was still shocked by how casually Helen made plans for her own death.

"So you don't have much time. Listen, I meant what I told you before. You're a soldier now, and Helen is your partner. You can't save everyone, and it's just smart to take care of your partner first." Kristen's voice wasn't passionate like before. It was strained, and her eyes were sad.

"And is that the right thing to do?"

"I know those two girls." Kristen turned away, gazing down at the crowd at ground level. "Not well, but we're acquainted. They're honorable, not like some magical girls. They could have just ambushed Helen, you know, instead of arranging a duel. But they're still not good people. Magical girls aren't allowed to be."

Kristen turned towards Anna again, meeting her eyes.

"You have to choose. Risk two people's lives to save one friend or risk your friend's life against two strangers. For most people the choice would be obvious. I don't have anything else to say."

* * *

The rest of the day passed by in a blur. Anna was so focused on the decision she had to make that she barely noticed anything else. When her mother asked her if she was feeling well, she muttered something about a headache and locked herself in her room, where she paced back and forth.

Until now, doing the right thing had always been easy for Anna. She didn't need to think about it, she just followed her heart. Black and white, right and wrong. For the first time, Anna was forced to reanalyze everything she believed in.

She still believed her ideals were good. It was good to fight wraiths and protect the innocent. She didn't think Kristen was right that magical girls couldn't be good.

But she was forced to admit that she cared about Helen more than she cared about two strangers. She wasn't perfectly good. She was human.

Her mind was made up. She would go to the battle and do everything she could to keep Helen safe while not hurting the other girls significantly. Fighting that way would risk her own life, but Anna was alright with that. It was better to take that risk than give up on her beliefs.

Anna snuck out of the house at eleven o' clock, doing her best to be quiet. She didn't want to wake Elsa up. She knew her sister would have wanted to come even if she couldn't convince Anna to avoid the fight, but this fight would be more dangerous than usual. Besides, she technically had only promised to let Elsa come along on wraith hunts. Anna still felt guilty, but she promised herself that she would apologize if she made it back safely.

Once she got outside, Anna transformed and began to run towards her destination. At magical girl speeds it wouldn't take very long.

* * *

_So this is why you delayed this phase of the plan for so long and even bothered to train Anna._ Kyubey said, rubbing against Helen's head from his perch on her shoulder.

Helen's eyes were taken off of the road for a few seconds. Thankfully, the roads weren't very crowded at this time of night. A car crash wasn't dangerous for her in the same way it was for a human, but it would still be inconvenient.

_Can you stop that? _Helen gritted her teeth. _I'm trying to drive._

_Two birds with one stone. I was right, in a way._

_Do you have a problem with that?_

_The time you wasted cannot be recovered, but I will accept it so long as the objective is reached. Just don't do it again._

_Yeah, yeah. Now don't you have somewhere to be?_

Helen pulled over to the side of the road, opened the door, and dumped Kyubey outside unceremoniously.

_It would have been more efficient to drop me off closer, and your lack of courtesy does not speak well of your willingness to abide by our agreement._

Helen drove away, unable to resist smiling. Everything was going according to plan.

* * *

Elsa's sleep was not restful. She slept in fits, woken by every disturbance before drifting back to sleep again. One time she woke to the sound of footsteps in the hallway, though she fell asleep before she could process it.

The next time she woke, she realized what those sounds meant, and immediately got out of her bed and checked Anna's room. The bed was empty, and she didn't know where Anna had gone. She texted Anna and Helen and checked frantically for clues in the room, making a mess in her hurry, but nothing was there.

When a few minutes had passed and she still hadn't received any reply to her texts, Elsa began to seriously panic. She was just about to knock on her mother's door to wake her up when a voice sounded in her head.

_Hello, Elsa._

Elsa couldn't see Kyubey, and she didn't bother trying to find him.

_Where is Anna?_

_Well, you see…_

After hearing the whole story, Elsa's initial response had been to call the police. At the very least, the magical girls would be forced to scatter, giving her and her mother plenty of time to get Anna out of the city.

_I wouldn't do that if I were you._

_And why not?_ Elsa said, not wasting any time as she headed for the garage.

_One of the girls from Alta can, for brief periods of time, control the mind of any human who is not a magical girl or a girl with potential. She doesn't like using that magic for whatever reason, but if she became desperate she would use the police officers as weapons against Helen and Anna, or at least just send the police away._

Elsa nodded. So she would just have to go alone, like usual. She grabbed her mother's car keys before leaving the house. She didn't know what Anna was thinking, but she wouldn't let her get hurt no matter what.


	6. Soldiers

The battle was scheduled to take place in Arendelle's former industrial sector, a relic from before manufacturing was outsourced overseas. Now the area consisted of just a few abandoned warehouses and factories. Anna knew some of her classmates came here during the day to do drugs, but not even the stupidest teenager stayed at night. The rusted fences and eerie quiet made Anna's skin crawl and did nothing to make her less nervous, but at least she wouldn't have to worry about anyone getting caught in the crossfire.

Now that she had transformed, the light shed by the nearly-full moon was more than enough to spot Helen's car parked in front of the gated entrance to an old factory. Helen was leaning back against the car in her magical girl outfit, her head angled to watch the stars.

Anna ran towards her, not sure when the girls from Alta would show up to attack. She could have teleported, but she didn't want to waste any magic just yet. She'd brought all the grief cubes she could carry, tucked into well-hidden pockets in her dress, but there was no way to know if they would be enough.

Helen got up abruptly to face her as she approached.

"What are you doing here?" Helen said, frowning. "I told you that you didn't need to come."

"I can't just leave a friend to fight alone." Anna said.

"And I don't suppose I can convince you to leave?"

Despite everything, a sly grin spread across Helen's face, and Anna returned it, the tension draining away. The situation was still delicate. She didn't know whether she would be able to beat the other magical girls without killing them. But with Helen on her side, anything seemed possible.

Anna giggled. "Nope."

"Then we need to talk strategy. We're a little early, so we still have a few minutes." Helen paused for a moment, and continued when Anna nodded. "I want you to fight Sabrina. She's the girl you saw earlier today. She can use mind control magic, but it doesn't work on magical girls and there isn't anyone else around here. You should be able to handle her. In the meantime, I'm going to draw Claire away. That way they won't be able to gang up on either of us."

"Shouldn't we fight together, though?" Anna said, trying not to let on that she was a bit nervous again.

Helen shook her head. "They've been working together for over a year. We're pretty good and you've made a lot of progress, but their teamwork is better than ours. Also, Claire's wind magic has a pretty broad range. If we want to win then we need to split them up."

It sounded like it would work, but there was still one more thing bothering Anna. It probably didn't need to be asked and she felt a little guilty even thinking it but…

"And we're going to win without hurting them, right?" Anna said, watching Helen closely.

"Of course." Helen said without hesitation. "Fights over territory can get heated sometimes, but we're all level-headed girls here. We'll just rough them up a bit and they'll leave. They'll have to find a new place to hunt, but there's no helping that. Just be careful not to hit their soul gems. Anything else can be healed with enough time and some magic."

"Got it." Anna said, relieved.

They summoned their weapons. The next few minutes passed in tense anticipation. Helen hummed a brief melody for a few minutes. Anna didn't know how Helen could stay so calm even in a situation like this, but she was grateful for the distraction. Worrying wouldn't be productive.

Finally, a flicker of motion in her peripheral vision caught Anna's attention. Two shadows jumped from building to building in the distance in front of her. The magical girls from Alta leaped off of the warehouse on the other side of the street from the abandoned factory she and Helen were standing by and floated down to the ground in sync.

Sabrina was now wearing a frilly, black dress with a black, star-shaped soul gem set into her left earring. She was holding what looked like a wooden staff. Next to her was a girl with short, blonde hair in a green dress. She must have been Claire. She wasn't holding a weapon and her soul gem was an emerald sewn into the hem of her dress.

The girls from Alta met their eyes for just a moment before rushing forward. Claire lifted her hand and Anna heard a large, whooshing sound headed their way. Anna grabbed Helen and teleported them both behind the other girls.

As they reappeared, the factory gate rattled loudly from the force of the wind blast that missed them. Claire and Sabrina reacted quickly, spinning to face them, but Helen was already slashing with her scythe in wide arcs. Claire and Sabrina jumped back towards opposite sides to avoid the swipes, and Helen flicked her wrist, firing an energy bolt at Claire, who jumped back again with a gust of wind. Helen didn't give her any time to recover, advancing and firing repeatedly.

Sabrina reached back with her staff as if to throw it at Helen, but Anna rushed her, thrusting her spear in the direction of Sabrina's midsection. She just had to avoid hitting her earring. Sabrina immediately switched to a two-handed grip on her staff and carefully blocked each of Anna's blows, her face not revealing any emotion. Then she thrust her staff through an opening in Anna's attacks, and Anna was forced to teleport.

Anna spent some time attempting to make up for her relative lack of skill by teleporting behind, to the side, and even above Sabrina, trying to take her by surprise. But unlike wraiths, Sabrina had the same precognition as every other magical girl, and was able to dodge or block these blows with ease despite how unpredictably Anna was attacking. Teleporting was barely enough to keep up with Sabrina, so Anna changed her tactics.

She reappeared further down the street and threw her spear, teleporting it directly to Sabrina, who barely blocked it in time. Anna used the opportunity to quickly hold a few grief cubes up to her soul gem before summoning more spears. She threw spear after spear, teleporting them mid-flight to strike at Sabrina from different angles. She didn't bother to teleport them back to her hand, as summoning new spears required slightly less magic than teleporting them back to her, though it took more concentration since it was a technique Helen taught her, not a natural function of her magic. Discarded spears clanged against the asphalt as Sabrina struck them out of the air. By the end of the assault, Sabrina was audibly gasping for breath, and cuts in her outfit oozed blood from her arms and body.

But the attack used too much magic and Anna hadn't succeeded in immobilizing Sabrina like she'd hoped. She was forced to pause her assault to apply more grief cubes. It only took a second to retrieve the grief cubes, but in that time Sabrina ran toward her. Anna was barely able to keep a grip on the grief cubes in her hand as she leapt backward, dodging Sabrina's staff.

Then the sound of a car pulling up dragged both girls' attention away. Anna recognized that sound, and a peek through the windshield confirmed it. How did Elsa find out?!

But Anna's attention had strayed just a little longer than Sabrina's. The last thing that Anna saw was Sabrina's staff move towards her hand. Whether she'd only meant to knock the grief cubes out of Anna's hand or not, no one would be able to tell, because the staff missed it by a hair's breadth and smashed the soul gem set into Anna's armband with the sound of cracking glass.

* * *

Elsa had sped through the entire car ride, ignoring speed limits for the first time. She thought she might not make it in time. She wasn't sure what she would do, but as a last resort maybe she could use her magic to protect Anna for once.

Then she arrived and felt as though her heart had stopped when she saw Anna fall to the ground.

She didn't notice how she ran to Anna's side. Nor did she see Sabrina freeze up for a few seconds before turning and running away. All Elsa saw was that her sister was completely motionless.

"Anna! Anna!" Elsa sobbed sharply, painfully. Her vision swum with tears.

She ran her hands over Anna's face, but there was no response. There were no injuries. There was no pulse.

Kyubey scurried next to Elsa. She glared at him. This was all his fault. But it was her fault too. Elsa sobbed faster, until she nearly began to hyperventilate. There was nothing she could do. Nothing mattered anymore.

_Elsa, you can save her. But you need to act quickly. You only have a minute at most before Anna's soul is taken by the Law of Cycles. _Kyubey said.

There was no hesitation. _What do I need to do?_

_Become a magical girl. Your karma is heavy enough to bring her back._

_I wish Anna was alive again, just like she used to be._ Elsa said.

_Wish granted. Your soul has successfully reduced net entropy. _

For an instant, an intense pain wracked every corner of Elsa's body, but through it all she kept her eyes open and on Anna. She barely noticed the blue-white ovular soul gem that formed in front of her before flashing and transforming into a ring on her finger. After the longest seconds of Elsa's life passed, Anna gasped and sat up, opening her eyes.

"Elsa? What's going on?" Anna said.

Elsa didn't respond, instead crushing her in a hug. She began sobbing again, and she buried her face in Anna's shoulder. After a moment, Anna tentatively wrapped her arms around to hug her sister back.

* * *

Helen had just finished taking care of Claire when Sabrina showed up on the roof of the factory.

Sabrina's eyes widened as she stared at the crumpled body at Helen's feet. Then she turned and ran, jumping from the roof of the factory to the neighboring building. Not completely clueless, then. Sabrina wasn't nearly as effective as Claire in combat. She didn't even use her magic properly, which meant that it was perfectly safe to let loose and have a little fun.

Helen got up and stretched her hands out in front of her, cracking her knuckles. Then she ran after Sabrina.

Sabrina kept darting fearful looks back at Helen. The second time she did so, Helen made sure to greet her with a wolfish grin. Sabrina quickly looked forward again and ran a little faster.

Finally, Helen got bored and shot an energy bolt at her back. Sabrina looked back at just the right moment to see it coming and jumped to the side. Not that it did her any good, because the bolt simply swerved to home in on her, striking her directly in the black and flinging her a good ten meters against the wall of a building. Sabrina slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Helen strode forward and bent over Sabrina's body. She gently plucked her soul gem from her earring. She could have just ripped the earring out, but she liked to leave the bodies intact for the families.

Helen held Sabrina's soul gem up to her necklace. The black, star-shaped soul gem passed through her own white, heart-shaped soul gem. Then it was though it never existed.

_Burn in hell._ A new voice said in Helen's head. She blocked it out.

Sabrina had come to find Claire, probably to help her in the fight. That must have meant that she'd won against Anna.

Helen was surprised by the worry she felt, and annoyed too. If she was going to feel worried, she would rather have felt worried beforehand. Now it was too late to do anything. In any case, Anna should be fine if everything went according to plan.

Anna would, of course, object if she knew what the rest of the plan entailed. Helen hadn't considered her feelings, hadn't even really known Anna or had any friends at all when she made the plan. She felt a bit guilty when she thought about how Anna would react. But she had already taken too many steps down this blood-drenched road. She couldn't turn back, or everything she had sacrificed already would have been for nothing. All she could do was try to make sure Anna never found out that her friend had betrayed her.

Helen ran back to the site where she and Anna had separated. She felt as though a weight had lifted from her shoulders when she saw Anna sitting up and hugging her sister. Then she remembered that Anna would hate the real her and everything she stood for. Helen forced herself to smile as she got closer.

"It looks like we did it!" Helen called out. She glanced over to confirm that a ring was on Elsa's finger. It looked like Elsa was crying, too.

"Are the other magical girls alright?" Anna said with a slight frown.

"Yeah, I just finished chasing them away. They might have to move somewhere else, but the important thing is we all survived!" Helen said.

Anna returned her smile, all doubt gone. "Yeah. I knew it would all turn out alright." Anna squeezed her sister a bit harder.

Elsa finally pulled back, and even smiled a bit, to Helen's surprise.

"You're not mad that I didn't tell you about it?" Anna asked, an eyebrow raised.

Elsa shook her head. "I'm just glad you're safe."

Helen laughed and gave each of them a hand. She pulled them up and threw an arm around each of their shoulders as they walked to their cars smiling in the post-battle bliss. It was at times like these that Helen's ambition was the only thing keeping her soul gem from turning pure black.


	7. Responsibility

A/N: I'm not sure whether any of you care, but I had some interesting back-story prepared for Sabrina that I never got the chance to use. Still, it might answer some questions about the plot that some people might have later on. It's pretty tragic so you might want to skip this author's note if you're squeamish. Sabrina's brother was suicidal but no one could convince him to go to therapy. She wished for the ability to get her brother to not commit suicide, but she found that her mind control magic only works for as long as she was using it in close proximity, and though she was able to take her brother to a few therapy sessions and get antidepression medication, nothing was working for him. She had to make sure to never let her brother be on his own for long periods of time and she had to constantly control his mind with magic. She realized that she was denying him free will and that even if she was willing to make him a slave she would eventually slip up anyway, so she stopped and tried to convince him again, but he ended up killing himself.

* * *

The car ride back home passed in silence. At first, Anna was hesitant to say anything. Elsa's hands jerked on the wheel occasionally. Besides, Anna had been confused enough to not know where to start. After a few minutes of watching the scenery zip by the adrenaline finally seemed to wear off and Elsa's arms became more relaxed on the steering wheel.

"What happened?" Anna asked.

"That other girl broke your soul gem, so I wished you were fine again." Elsa made the next turn a bit more sharply than usual.

Anna looked at Elsa's hands on the wheel. There was a silver ring on her left middle finger.

"So you're a magical girl too now." Anna said, slumping in her seat.

She really thought she'd be able to prevent it from happening. For all the agonizing she'd done before the battle, she hadn't considered that her deal with Kyubey would be over if she died. She was an idiot.

Elsa glanced over at her for a moment before facing forward again. "There wasn't any other choice, and I don't regret it."

"You didn't have to do it." Anna said. "I know you didn't want to be a magical girl. You shouldn't have to pay for my mistakes."

"Don't be stupid." Elsa said, not bothering to turn to face her.

There was a pause.

"Anyway, it looks like we're going to be fighting wraiths together." Anna said with forced bravado. "Don't worry, we'll get you trained up. Those wraiths won't know what hit 'em!"

Elsa frowned, but Anna didn't give her a chance to object. "You're not getting out of this one. There's no way you can fight wraiths on your own, and we could use the backup."

Anna still wanted to learn about Elsa's magic, but Elsa had just started talking to her again and she didn't want to ruin that by asking too many questions. This would give her a chance to learn more and get Elsa used to being a magical girl at the same time.

Elsa sighed as she pulled into the driveway of their home. "Alright then."

Anna smiled. At least something good was coming out of this situation.

* * *

The next day was still a school day, so Elsa had to get up early despite how tired she was. She hadn't even managed to sleep well for the few hours after they got home. Until then she'd been so relieved that Anna was safe that the implications of being a magical girl hadn't sunk in yet.

Elsa had always been able to feel her magic. Before it had tingled against her skin when she was stressed. Now that feeling was constant, and it was far stronger. It took more concentration for her to control it now, and Elsa knew she would lose control again eventually. She was a ticking bomb, and she did not want to be anywhere near Anna, or anyone else for that matter, when it went off. She could already tell that her control exercises wouldn't be good enough anymore. She would have to find someplace isolated right after school and let the magic out. Maybe if she did that occasionally it would be easier to control the rest of the time. If she got unlucky someone might find out, but she would rather get taken away by men in suits than hurt anyone.

Her mother must have noticed that she was even more withdrawn than usual during breakfast, because she cornered her in her room afterwards.

"What's wrong?" Elsa's mother asked, careful not to cross the threshold of her room. She always was good about that.

"Nothing." Elsa didn't look up from her backpack, instead readjusting the ordering of her folders. It was just an excuse. She'd already packed everything up.

"You and Anna have both been acting so strange lately. You know you can tell me anything, right?"

Elsa wished that was true. She got up and slipped the backpack on.

"It's just getting a little harder to control." Elsa mumbled.

Her mother furrowed her brow. "I know it's hard. But you've been doing such a good job. I'm so proud that I have such a strong daughter."

Elsa nodded and left quickly.

If it was only hard, and if she was actually strong, then she could have managed it. She was worried that it was becoming impossible.

* * *

Anna was surprised when Kristen approached her right after homeroom. Kristen didn't bother with going to the roof this time, instead just leading Anna to a close-by, relatively empty section of the school near the orchestra room.

"How are Sabrina and Claire?" Kristen said as soon as the crowd began to thin.

"They're fine. Helen just chased them away." Anna said bluntly. She could tell Kristen was worried and, sure enough, Kristen breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's good."

"If you were worried, why didn't you come with us? They might have backed down if they knew it was three on two." Anna said.

"No, they wouldn't have. They aren't the type to back down."

"Still, if you'd come you might have been able to do _something_. You probably would have at least felt better."

Anna knew that she would always try, even if it was futile. It was painful to see someone she cared about getting hurt. She would feel even more powerless if she didn't at least try to do something about it.

Kristen made a strange expression. Anger, maybe? Or pain?

"It's not that simple." Kristen said sharply. "I can't afford to get hurt fighting someone else's battles. I have my own problems to worry about."

Anna remembered something, and suddenly all of Kristen's actions made sense.

"Do you mean your mother?"

"Yes. Anyway, nothing bad happened in the end, right?"

Anna paused.

"Did something happen?" Kristen said, her voice unusually timid.

"I got hurt in the battle. My sister found out about it somehow and followed me there. She became a magical girl to make me better again."

Kristen winced.

"I'm not blaming you!" Anna said.

She really wasn't. It was her own fault. She hadn't fought well enough, she apparently hadn't snuck out of the house well enough, and she hadn't considered that Elsa might contract. She hadn't thought anything through properly. It wasn't the first time, but usually she was the only one who got hurt because of it, and she wouldn't let it happen again.

Kristen looked away. "I know you're not."

* * *

"Don't worry, Anna." Helen said at lunch. "We'll take care of Elsa. With three magical girls, the wraiths aren't a real threat anymore. We don't need to worry about grief cubes either. Now that we have Sabrina and Claire's territory, we should have enough."

Anna poked at her sandwich, but didn't lift it to her mouth to take a bite. She wasn't feeling very hungry, not even for banana and Nutella.

"Yeah, I know. I just feel like this is all my fault." Anna said, still looking down.

"It isn't. Really. It was my strategy that failed. I underestimated Sabrina. We would have been better off fighting together." Helen said.

Kyubey had been stretching leisurely on the table in front of them, but suddenly he sat up, an ear raised.

_Another group of wraiths? _Anna asked.

_Correct. It's close to the industrial area. _

_Let's take Elsa along then. _Helen said.

They walked over to Elsa's table. She must have heard Kyubey, but she just sat there, as if frozen.

"You should come too." Anna said. Helen stood quietly at her side, letting her do the talking, for which Anna was grateful.

"I'm not sure…"

"You can't avoid fighting wraiths forever." Anna said. "You need grief cubes and this is good practice. Besides, we need you."

Elsa hesitated, and then nodded. "Fine. Let's get going."

* * *

The wraiths were milling through the streets between the abandoned warehouses and factories. Elsa couldn't tell exactly how many were there since they weren't gathered in one place this time. The miasma that obscured the senses of ordinary people was dispersed across several blocks.

Helen and Anna held their soul gems in front of them and transformed in flashes of light. Anna turned back to look at Elsa afterwards. She'd barely moved from the car yet. She had intended to try to vent her magic, and this was a good opportunity to do so, but she'd been planning to do it far away from other people. But she also had to make an attempt to work with Anna and Helen better now that she had to fight wraiths with them. It was terrible timing. She would have to do her best to control it, and keep her distance from the others just in case.

Anna gave her an encouraging nod and, taking a deep breath, Elsa held her hand out in front of her. The ring vanished and a blue-white soul gem appeared in front of her. It spun and spewed streams of blue light. It was bright, brighter than either of the transformations that Elsa had seen before. Strangely, it didn't hurt for her to look at, though she could see Anna and Helen shielding their eyes with their hands. Elsa's clothes transformed into light and then into a navy blue, archaic military uniform with gold trim and a scabbard strapped to her waist. A short sword with a silver hilt had already appeared in her hand, though it took her a moment to realize it since it felt so light. Her soul gem was shaped like a snowflake and was anchored to her shirt pocket by a short, gold chain.

The tingling sensation of her magic was stronger now, and Elsa clenched her fists at her side with the effort it took to keep it inside. She took a step back from Anna and Helen.

"Well, aren't you going to try using your magic?" Helen said. Her expression was dispassionate, but the question came out just a little too fast.

"Get clear first." Elsa said, her voice taking on more of an edge than she'd meant it to. The magic was surging now, stronger and stronger.

"Now!" she barked when their steps to the side of the road were a little too slow, and they shuffled back more quickly.

For the first time, Elsa understood how to use her magic. As a child, she'd had some rudimentary skill, but she'd learnt all too bitterly how insufficient that skill really was. Ironically, the knowledge now came to her mind effortlessly the moment she thought about it. The sword would help. It could be used directly in combat, but its main purpose was to channel her magic.

Elsa raised the sword over her head and slashed it forward in the direction of the group of wraiths in front of her. Giant icicles materialized around her and with a thought she sent them flying towards the wraiths. She watched them go, using her improved eyesight and reaction time to bend their paths with waves of her sword to strike the wraiths that attempted to dodge. Every one of the icicles struck their target, causing the wraiths to disappear in bursts of wind.

"Not bad." Helen said, one side of her mouth raised in a coy smile.

Anna nodded in agreement, apparently too impressed to say anything. The reception made Elsa nervous. She didn't like showing her magic to others in the first place, and that they didn't treat it with the appropriate fear and caution worried her. At least Anna didn't have to risk her life fighting now.

They walked from street to street, and at each one Elsa killed all the wraiths quickly and efficiently. It didn't ease Elsa's nerves though. She'd hoped that the tingling of her magic would diminish, but apparently she was barely tapping its full strength, and a quick glance at her soul gem halfway through, which showed only a few specks of corruption, confirmed her suspicion. But Elsa didn't want to know what would happen if she unleashed more magic. It took all her focus as it was just to keep her magic focused forward, towards their enemies, rather than towards Anna and Helen.

* * *

"Your magic is amazing!" Anna said as they walked back to the car after the battle ended.

She'd kept her distance throughout and hadn't said anything to avoid distracting Elsa, but now she couldn't help it. Elsa had killed all the wraiths in just a few minutes. Anna had gotten a lot better at fighting since she became a magical girl, but she still couldn't have done that nearly as quickly.

"No, it isn't." Elsa said. She turned to hold Anna's gaze for a moment with piercing blue eyes. "It's dangerous, and you shouldn't let your guard down. You shouldn't be standing this close to me."

"Is that why you've been shutting me out all this time?" Anna hadn't meant to say it. She was trying to take a more subtle approach now that Elsa was talking to her again, but it had slipped out.

Elsa's eyes widened, and then Anna knew.

"Anna, please-" Elsa began to say, her voice strained, but Anna cut her off.

"No, I'm tired of walking on eggshells around you all the time!" Anna said, surprising herself with how quickly the anger returned. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Helen taking a step away from her and Elsa, but she ignored it. "That's really the reason? You really think I'd rather be safe than never talk to my sister?"

"You don't understand!"

"Then explain it to me!"

"I can't!" Elsa yelled, waving her arm, and icy wind sprung from her hand towards Anna.

Anna was so shocked by the warning her precognition sent her and the burst of wind moved so quickly that she wasn't even able to start to dodge. It struck her directly in the center of her chest. Anna gasped and bent over as ice gripped her. It was colder than anything she'd ever felt. She couldn't feel her chest at all. Her arms were cold and the sensation was spreading.

"No." Elsa said softly, and then she collapsed to the ground.

"Wh-what?" Anna said, her teeth clattering from the cold. She stared at Elsa, not understanding.

Anna turned to Helen. She didn't know what she expected from her friend. Directions maybe, or just support, but Helen was too busy looking at Kyubey, who had run up to her side.

_Her soul gem is in critical condition. You must take her to the isolation field immediately._

Helen's face twisted into a snarl. "Damn it! This wasn't how it was supposed to go!"

"What's going on?" Anna said.

Helen looked at her, and her eyes flickered with some emotion that Anna had never seen from her before. It suddenly occurred to Anna that she didn't know very much about her friend.

"I'm sorry, Anna." Helen said before pushing past her.

She bent over Elsa's body and ripped her soul gem, which was now nearly entirely black, from her outfit, breaking the gold chain it was attached to in the process. Then she ran away down the road at full speed.

"Wait!" Anna called out. She made to follow her, but the cold had numbed her legs.

She shuffled to Elsa's side and checked her wrist for a pulse. She let go of the breath she was holding when she found it, but it was slow and weak and Anna didn't think any hospital could help her. Helen had once told her that a magical girl couldn't survive for long without their soul gem. She had no idea what was going on, but she knew she had to get her sister to her soul gem. She could make Helen explain herself later.

The worst of the cold had gone. Her chest was still numb, but her arms and legs weren't any longer and she could feel the cold starting to slowly recede. She checked her soul gem and, sure enough, her magic was being used to slowly heal the damage.

Anna got down on one knee and gently slid her hands under Elsa's back and legs. She stood up again with Elsa held in her arms and began to run in the direction Helen had left in.


	8. Despair

Shimmering planes of violet force oscillated in tight, rotating cubes around the black soul gem. It was held a few inches above the ground by an invisible force at a seemingly random location at the edge of the industrial area. The buildings were further apart here and the chance of human interference was low, but Helen doubted those were the only criteria Kyubey had considered when choosing the spot. What those criteria might be, though, was a mystery to her.

"So how does this thing work, exactly?" Helen said to the Incubator sitting next to her.

To Helen, power was power and she only really cared about how it worked as far as it helped her get more of it. She asked the question to distract herself from the guilt that churned her stomach. It had been only a slight nuisance before, but it was stronger now that it was only a matter of time until Anna found out the truth.

_A perfect isolation field would have been physically impossible with our technology alone, despite how advanced as it is. True black boxes don't exist in reality. _Kyubey said. The dullness of his red eyes was impossible to ignore; he didn't bother to blink when it was just the two of them, the little freak.

He continued droning on, not seeming to notice that Helen was only barely listening and that he was wasting energy trying to play nice with his ally. It was almost pathetic how little he understood people. At least, it would be if he wasn't so dangerous anyway.

_You magical girls describe the Law of Cycles as a goddess that cleanses your soul gems of suffering at the moment of death and leads you to the afterlife. Until recently, we assessed that phenomenon as just an inexplicable quirk of your magic, without the interference of any goddess. But now we have reason to believe that it might in fact be the result of a powerful magical girl's wish. The obvious solution was to convince another magical girl to wish for the ability to create these isolation fields. Of course, we would have simply had a girl wish for our control of the Law of Cycles itself, but we have not found a single girl with the necessary karmic potential. _

"Great, so it works. Then why is this taking so long?" Helen said, crossing her arms.

She could sense that the swirling, black particles in the isolation field that brushed against the soul gem from time to time were actually made from grief cubes, keeping the soul gem suspended in its critical state. But there was no need to tell Kyubey more than he needed to know about her magic. More importantly, every extra minute they spent increased the chance of Anna catching up to them.

_I would like to observe Elsa's soul gem in this critical state before continuing with her witch transformation. _Kyubey continued staring into the isolation field as though it held the key to the universe.

Helen turned away before allowing her face to display her disgust. Of course he wouldn't care about the position this put her in.

Long minutes passed until the sound of footsteps that Helen had been anticipating finally arrived. Helen swore under her breath and quickly composed herself. Just a few seconds later, Anna came running from behind the corner with Elsa held in her arms. She gently laid Elsa on the ground in the front of the soul gem before turning to face Helen.

"Helen? What's going on?" Anna said. Her eyes were wide, and Helen could tell that she was trying not to sound like she was making an accusation, but her voice still came out a bit too sharply at the end.

Helen had prepared for this. "I didn't have a choice, Anna. Elsa was about to die, her soul gem was corrupting too quickly. I had to take it here, to the isolation field, to stabilize it. It will take some time to purify her soul gem again."

Anna furrowed her brows, her voice pleading now. Helen could tell that she wanted to be convinced that her friend was still loyal.

"Then why did you apologize? Isn't it dangerous to take a magical girl's soul gem away?"

Helen winced. It had been a bad idea to apologize, but it had felt right at the time. She needed to use just enough of the truth to convince her. If she could just stall for a few more minutes or, better yet, somehow convince Anna to leave then maybe she could salvage the situation. In the worst case she could claim to have done the best she could to save Elsa, and Anna would forgive her in time.

"It was a risk." Helen admitted. "But Elsa would have died for sure if we hadn't done anything."

Anna nodded, but she didn't look completely convinced. It would have to do. She walked forward and placed a hand on the isolation field, where it was stopped by an invisible wall.

"Is she going to be alright?" Anna turned her head to hold Helen's gaze. That pleading tone was back.

Helen looked away, her tongue suddenly heavy in her mouth.

_Please take a step back from the field. _Kyubey said. _It was designed to hold, but there is no need to take unnecessary risks._

Anna nodded, and her arm tensed as if to push off of the field, when suddenly she fell forward past it with a yelp. The edge of her hand grazed the soul gem and then she disappeared. Helen scanned the surrounding area, but Anna hadn't teleported. She was just gone.

"What the hell just happened?!" Helen said, glaring at Kyubey. The Incubator simply stood and walked over to the isolation field, examining it more closely.

_This is quite unusual. The field is designed to not let anything in. Perhaps this has something to do with what Homura told me about witches? Their barriers are designed to lure humans in. If so, the witch that Elsa is becoming may have allowed Anna to pass through. _

Helen filed away the name "Homura" to look into later.

"Well? We can't just leave her in there. What would even happen to her?"

_Agreed. She might interfere with the experimental results somehow. You should follow Anna and bring her back out._

Helen raised an eyebrow. This sounded a bit too convenient for Kyubey. Not that she had anything to worry about.

"How am I supposed to do that? Besides, why would Elsa invite me in? You probably didn't notice, but she doesn't like me that much."

_I will calibrate the isolation field to allow you in. _Kyubey lifted a paw and placed it on the field, which glowed brighter for a split second. _I will direct you from here._

Helen sighed. Couldn't anything go right that day? She summoned her scythe with a flick of her wrist and walked through the field, placing a hand on Elsa's soul gem. Everything faded to white.

* * *

For the first time in her life, Elsa felt cold. She sat on an icy throne in a vast, empty room made entirely of ice. The room had a high ceiling and open windows that allowed snow from the blizzard outside to sweep in and sting her face and hands. She didn't make any effort to brush it off.

Perhaps this was the Niflheim that her parents had told her stories about, for it to be so cold that even she could feel it. If so, she deserved it.

* * *

It was cold. Anna's chest still hadn't finished unfreezing, and now every bit of her was cold. The snow fell in thick sheets, blinding her. Even with magical senses, she couldn't see further than a few feet. Still, she kept walking, even when the path in front of her climbed steeply upward, as though she was hiking a mountain.

There wasn't anything else to do. She didn't know where she was, but she felt Elsa's presence all around her. It was the same sensation that she had when she smelled Elsa's favorite brand of shampoo. Familiar. Anna felt that if she just kept walking she would find Elsa. Maybe this entire place was inside Elsa's soul gem somehow. If so, maybe she could bring Elsa back with her to the real world, and everything would be alright again. Anna clung desperately to that hope as she blindly stumbled forward.

Finally, after walking for what felt like hours, she began to see a large, blurry structure through the snow. As she got closer the image solidified until she was standing before an enormous gate that looked like it was made from pure ice. Anna's hands were numb, but she could still feel a faint shock of the cold when she grabbed the handle and pulled the gate open.

She rubbed her arms uselessly as she crept through the winding halls of the ice palace. Eventually, she reached an elaborately carved set of doors, and when she opened them she saw Elsa sitting on a throne at the head of the room. Elsa looked up as the doors scraped against the floor. Her face was frozen, as though she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Anna? You're alive?" Elsa said softly.

"Y-yeah." Anna said, her teeth chattering as she slowly approached. "And I finally found you. I don't know where we are, but now we can start looking for a way out."

Elsa stood and stepped forward quickly, but then stopped abruptly as if she'd run into an invisible wall.

"You should go, Anna." Elsa said, gripping her hands together so hard that it had to hurt. "I nearly killed you, and I could do it again. It's better for everyone if I just stay here."

"I told you." Anna looked straight at her sister as she defiantly continued forward. "I just don't care."

"That wasn't the first time." Elsa said, her breathing suddenly ragged. Anna slowed down to look closer, and her suspicion was confirmed. Elsa was crying. "I hurt you when we were little, too, and you barely survived. Don't you get it, Anna? I've been cursed my whole life. I tried to control it, but I keep failing and each time I fail I could lose one of the few good things in my life. I can't live like this. If you won't do it for me, at least do it for Mom. What if she died too?"

"Don't say that." Anna said, feeling as though her chest was being squeezed. The memories of her father's death, the ones she thought she had dealt with, were back again. Only now she saw her mother's mangled body in the pictures of the car's wreck. "Don't say that!"

Elsa didn't reply. Once she got her breathing back under control, Anna just stood there, trying to think of something, anything she could say to convince Elsa to come back. But she couldn't.

Anna heard footsteps approaching and she turned in time to see Helen run through the doorway. She glanced over at Elsa in surprise before snapping back to Anna.

"Listen." Helen said. "We need to go, Anna. Right now."

"But what about Elsa?" Anna said, confused.

"There's no time, damn it! Look behind you!"

Anna did, and gasped as she saw the thing that had once been Elsa - a black, featureless silhouette in her shape. It held its face in its hands and a black, inky tear fell from it to the floor, where it began to spread, consuming everything it touched in darkness. A hole appeared as it opened its mouth and let loose an inhuman scream, high-pitched and deafeningly loud as it assaulted Anna from every direction at once.

Helen grabbed Anna's hand, and she didn't resist. Anna couldn't tear her eyes away, but from the corner of her eye she saw Helen detransform only her soul gem from its place on her necklace and hold it up high. It flashed with white light. The entire world seemed to spin as it was sucked into the soul gem, colors draining away into the white light, which grew brighter and brighter. Anna closed her eyes against the light. Then she felt as if she was being thrown backwards, and her head hit something very hard.

* * *

Helen was triumphant. She had everything she could ever want. Her magic was much stronger now than it had ever been. Her entire body burned with it. Combined with Sabrina's ability, it would be more than enough to change the world.

_Anna- _a voice said, but Helen shut it off with practiced ease.

Helen wanted to test it out. She shouldn't. It was an unnecessary risk. But Anna was still unconscious, crumpled on the pavement while her magic took its time healing her, and she would never find out. It was a tragic accident, really. Helen had done the best she could, but she simply couldn't save Elsa. It was all she could do to get Anna out. That story wouldn't even be entirely false, and Anna would probably actually be grateful.

Helen held a hand out and reached for Elsa's magic.

_No, stop-_

A snowflake materialized above her hand, and she crushed it, melting it against her skin. She laughed, and called for more magic, chilling the air around her.

_I did not realize that you were able to sense the transformation of a soul gem._ Kyubey said as he trotted up to her. _My apologies. The isolation system did not apply sufficient grief cubes, and it was too late by the time I realized the mista-_

Kyubey stopped talking once Helen clenched her fingers into a fist, creating spikes of ice that burst from the ground and impaled his body from every angle.

_Even if you hadn't betrayed me, do you really think I would allow a monster like you to keep living?_ Helen said.

The spikes vanished and Kyubey's body collapsed, still twitching. Helen spat on it. The wounds were red, but nothing came from them. It wasn't even human enough to bleed right.

Helen laughed again, a dry, hollow sound that echoed off of the buildings as she practiced forming snowflakes in her hands.


	9. Hope

A/N: I'm posting two chapters at once this time so read chapter 10 before this. Please review and let me know what you think.

* * *

_Anna! Anna!_

Anna grumbled softly as she woke. _What is it?_

_Listen carefully. Don't open your eyes yet._

_Kristen? What are you doing here? _

_You took too long getting back to school. But that's not important. Your sister isn't moving and I saw Helen using some kind of ice magic. I didn't know she could do that. She's watching you right now. I think she's waiting for you to wake up, but this situation just doesn't feel right so I decided to stay out of the way and try to wake you up._

_Ice? But that's Elsa's magic! What's going on?_

_I believe we have a dilemma. _Kyubey's voice joined the conversation. _You see, Helen's magic allows her to absorb other magical girls' soul gems and use their magic as her own. She must have interfered with the isolation of Elsa's soul gem so that she could absorb it._

_Helen wouldn't do that though, right? _Anna said nervously. _Elsa needs her soul gem to live._

A sensation like a sigh came through her connection with Kristen. _I was beginning to think that maybe Helen wasn't so bad, but I guess I was right. She was just using you this whole time._

Anna swallowed heavily. Helen was right in front of her, acting concerned, when she had just hurt Elsa. Anna felt vulnerable, and hurt. But most of all, she was scared that she was going to lose her sister too.

_But what about Elsa? Can we get her back?_

_It is possible. _Kyubey said. _If you kill Helen, Elsa's soul gem would likely be released. If you can apply grief cubes to it in time, you might be able to save her._

_I need to kill Helen? _Anna said. This had to be a nightmare, right? There was no way this could be real.

She felt a burst of warmth from Kristen. _It sucks, I know. But I will help you._

_Thanks_. Anna said, trying to convince herself that she could do it. She had to save Elsa, even if it meant fighting Helen. This was her fault to begin with. _But I want to talk to Helen first. I need to at least try to convince her to give Elsa's soul gem back._

There was a pause. _Fine_. Kristen said. _But if she says no then we use the distraction to hit her by surprise. If Kyubey's telling the truth then she must be really powerful right now, but she doesn't know I'm here. I'm sending you an image of where I am right now._

Anna noted Kristen's location carefully. She was hiding behind one of the buildings.

_Alright._ Anna said, and then she opened her eyes.

Helen's expression was unusually serious. She usually smiled when she looked at Anna, but now her forehead was creased. Helen offered a hand, but Anna ignored it and pushed herself off of the pavement. Helen dropped the hand awkwardly.

"Anna, you're alright." Helen said. Now Anna could see the lie in the process of formation, Helen's expressions shifting too quickly from something unidentifiable to a mask of innocence. Had the signs always been there and she'd been too oblivious to see them? Or did Helen just feel guilty now? "I was able to get you out, but it was too late for Elsa. I'm sorry. I did the best I could, but it wasn't enough."

Anna put a hand up, and Helen stopped talking. She held Helen's gaze, and now Helen's face betrayed her fully, flinching involuntarily.

"Helen, please. Just - just tell me the truth." Anna said, her voice cracking. "What did you do to Elsa?"

Helen's eyes widened in shock, but she didn't say anything, and that was answer enough.

"Just give her soul gem back, okay?" Anna said desperately. "We can forget this ever happened."

Helen shook her head, and her eyebrows narrowed to a more composed expression, cold and remorseless.

"I'm sorry, Anna. I can't do that."

Anna nodded, and then she teleported forward, inside of Helen's scythe's range, and punched toward the soul gem in her necklace as hard as she could. The method of attack must have been a surprise even with precognition, because Helen barely managed to avoid the blow, leaning to the side so that it hit her in the shoulder. Still, the shoulder crumpled as the bone broke and Helen was launched through the air to crash into the building that Kristen was hiding behind.

_Now!_ Anna called out.

They attacked without giving Helen a chance to even get up. Kristen jumped down from the roof of the building, swinging her axe in an enormous arc, and Anna threw and teleported a spear towards Helen, but this time she was prepared. Helen blocked the axe blow with her scythe with one hand and somehow managed to wave the hand of her injured arm to summon a wall of wind that blew away both the spear and Kristen, who was flipped onto the road, her nose cracking audibly as it slammed into the pavement.

Kristen got up quickly, snarling as blood dripped down from her nose. _That was Claire's magic._

Anna froze. She'd thought the girls from Alta were safe, but Helen must have lied about that too. And she'd helped her do it.

Anna focused on the battle again when Helen got up and waved her hand, summoning dozens of icicles that homed in on Kristen, who ran and jumped frantically, barely able to dodge them. Anna teleported behind Helen, but she had already begun to jump onto the roof of the building, where she formed icicles that spun around her in a spherical shield before firing them at Anna and Kristen. There wasn't any opening in the array of icicles that Helen had deployed around her for Anna to get close, and she was forced to teleport from one location to another to avoid the icicles, only occasionally able to fire a spear that Helen blocked easily.

_This isn't working! We need to retreat and come up with something. _Kristen said.

Anna's soul gem was already mostly clouded, and Helen didn't show any sign of fatigue.

_Okay. Jump to the right when I tell you to and I will get you out of there. Now!_

Kristen jumped to the side, dodging the latest barrage of icicles, and Anna teleported to her side, grabbed her arm, and brought both of them behind a building a block away.

Anna slumped to the ground, gasping, and retrieved her supply of grief cubes from her pocket. Next to her, Kristen did the same. Anna reached over to her armband to apply them to her soul gem, but paused before doing so. She only had a few, and they would need all they could get to save Elsa. It was probably too late for the other magical girls whose soul gems Helen had absorbed. Their bodies must have decayed beyond repair already, and been buried or cremated. Anna put three quarters of the grief cubes back into her pocket and held the rest to her soul gem. Some of the darkness left it, and it returned to a slightly brighter shade of lavender. It wasn't enough, but it would have to do.

_I'm out of grief cubes_. Kristen said, tossing aside a few cubes.

"I don't want to fight you, Anna!" Helen yelled. Her voice came from the other side of the building, and its origin changed as she continued speaking. She must have been on the move, staying alert. "If you hate me, I get it. But you can't win this fight. Just leave and no one else has to get hurt today."

Anna wished it was that simple. She looked at Kristen, who nodded. They weren't going to back down.

_I have a plan._ Kristen said. _You need to teleport me as close to Helen as possible. Then I will attack her head on. If I can get close enough I might be able to beat her._

_There's no way that would work!_ Anna glared at her. _That's just suicide._

_My magic can heal me very quickly. Look. _Kristen pointed at her nose, which looked fine aside from the blood caking it. _And my soul gem is on my hair tie, so it's mostly out of the way. A head-on charge would surprise her and she isn't the type to run. She'll attack, and she'll be surprised when I don't try to dodge._

_Are you sure? _Anna said. _This isn't your battle. Didn't you say you have your own problems to worry about?_

Kristen shook her head. _You were right, back then. I had a choice the whole time, and I wasn't making the choice that I really wanted to make. Maybe someone else could do nothing and feel nothing while their friends get hurt, but that's not who I am._

Despite everything, Anna found herself smiling. _Thank you._

Kristen got up and held a hand out. Anna grabbed it and Kristen pulled her up. Then she teleported them to the roof of the building, swept her eyes across the battle to find Helen, who had returned to the isolation field, and teleported them both to Helen's side.

"You can't win!" Helen said, launching icicles at them immediately.

Kristen ran forward, shielding Anna from the strikes and swinging her axe, giving Anna a chance to locate and teleport to a rooftop with a good view of Helen. Kristen managed to shatter most of the icicles with her axe, but many of them pierced her. Blood seeped from each wound before being stemmed by her healing magic.

Helen's eyes widened as she realized that Kristen wasn't going to run, but Kristen had already slammed her axe past most of the icicles protecting her, and Anna had taken the rest out with concentrated burst of spear fire. Just before Kristen could land a blow, Helen waved her arm and cast her wind magic again, but before it could blow Kristen away Anna appeared behind her and teleported them both a foot to the side. Using just a bit more magic than she had expected or could afford, she fired one last spear at Helen's undefended soul gem.

The soul gem shattered in a flash of white light as the spear pierced it and continued to impale Helen's body. Helen let loose an earth shattering scream and fell to the ground. From the shattered fragments of Helen's soul gem, a half dozen others materialized on the ground, including a blue-white one. Just a few feet away from Anna, Elsa stirred slightly.

"Kristen, you have to get these to Elsa." Anna said. She had fallen to the ground, and her magic was nearly gone. Her arm trembled as she reached into her pocket and tossed the last few grief cubes to Kristen, who had collapsed a foot away from her.

"Anna, I'm sorry. I can't do it." Kristen mumbled. Anna managed to turn her head enough to look at Kristen properly. The icicles had hurt her worse than she'd thought. They impaled every bit of her body, and her legs were mangled. Her soul gem, previously a dark blue, was now almost as black as Anna's as her body used up its healing magic. It was a miracle that she'd even managed to get close to Helen. One of the grief cubes had landed near Kristen's soul gem and was siphoning off some of the corruption, but it might not even be enough to keep her alive.

"You don't have to apologize." Anna said, turning back to face Elsa. "Because of you, at least I can see Elsa one more time."

"Anna?" Elsa said, opening her eyes. Her face noticeably strained with the effort of just opening her eyelids, but her expression became slightly softer when she saw Anna.

Anna smiled at her. She'd been so caught up in getting angry and trying to get Elsa to open up that she hadn't really tried to understand Elsa. She'd spent her whole life thinking that Elsa hated her, and the last three weeks thinking that Elsa considered her a burden, or someone she had to take care of because it was her duty as the older sister. But Elsa had never acted that way at all.

"Elsa, thank you for looking out for me. I love you too, and I'm sorry I screwed everything up."

Elsa's eyes closed again. "Don't be stupid." She said. "My life was so much better with you in it."

Anna was about to close her eyes too when a doorway opened in the sky in front of her. A bright light poured through it, but it wasn't blinding. It was warm. An angel descended from it, floating on a staircase of light. She looked barely older than Anna, with long, pink hair, yellow eyes, a flowing white dress, and a glow that seemed to shine from within.

"Don't worry," said the angel. "Everything will be alright from now on."

"The Goddess…" Kristen said.

"Some girls call me that." The angel said. "But please, call me Madoka."

The angel had reached them by now, and as she unfurled her wings the corruption flew from Anna and Elsa's soul gems to the wings, where it vanished amidst the light.

The next thing Anna knew, she was standing next to her body, and so was Elsa. To her right, Helen and an assortment of other magical girls including Claire and Sabrina were standing above their respective soul gems, though Helen was looking pointedly away. All of their forms had a transparent quality to them.

"What about me?" Kristen said.

The angel shook her head. "You still have light in your soul gem, and I won't let you die too."

A light breeze blew, lifting the grief cubes scattered around Kristen's body and depositing them next to her soul gem. She let out a breath as the corruption was sucked out and her body began to heal faster, the wounds knitting together.

"Are you all ready to go?" The angel said, looking back and forth.

"Just one second." Anna said, and she turned to face Kristen. "Goodbye, Kristen. You were a good friend."

Elsa nodded. "I never had the chance to get to know you, but thank you for helping Anna."

"Goodbye. I will see you again one day." Kristen said. "And you too." Kristen nodded toward Claire and Sabrina.

"So you finally got that stick out of your ass, huh? See you later, Kristen. You weren't bad company." Claire said.

"Goodbye." Sabrina waved.

Anna nodded to the angel, who began to lead them up the stairs toward the doorway in the sky.

"You know, we have a lot of catching up to do." Anna said to Elsa as they reached the halfway point.

"I know, and I will make it up to you. I promise." Elsa smiled at her, and she smiled back. For the first time in years, it felt like there was nothing separating them.

Three quarters of the way up, a sniffling sound drew Anna's attention to the side. Helen was barely making any noise, but tears dripped down her face. Elsa scowled at her. Anna didn't know how to feel.

The angel noticed and looked toward them. "I know many magical girls don't get along while they're alive, but please try not to hold onto that. No girl's life is easy, and many girls do things they regret because they thought it was right or because they thought they had no choice or because they were broken by the cruelty they experienced. Please try to give her a chance one day."

Elsa didn't look convinced, and Anna was uncertain herself. But maybe one day she would feel differently, now that Helen couldn't hurt them anymore. They walked without saying anything for a while.

"Kyubey survived that, didn't he?" Helen said abruptly. She'd stopped crying. "He's the one who told Anna about what I did. He's not going to stop using the isolation field, you know. He wants to take your power."

The angel smiled sadly. "I know, and I will be ready. But thank you."

They reached the doorway, and when it was their turn Anna and Elsa walked through it side by side.


End file.
